Action on telco consumer protections: October to December 2025

Compliance with Triple Zero and public safety requirements

In November 2025, the Triple Zero Custodian made its first request for the ACMA to give an Emergency Call Service (ECS) Direction. Under new provisions in the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999, we issued the ECS Direction to Optus to provide information about its:

• outage response policies and procedures
• outage testing prior to system changes. 

We also worked closely with the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts to implement processes under the new custodian framework.

During the quarter, we registered the:

• Emergency Call Service Requirements C536:2020 Industry Code Incorporating Variation No.1/2025
• Emergency Calling – Network and Mobile Phone Testing Industry Code C674:2025. 

This implemented Optus Outage (Bean) Report recommendations 3, 4 and 16.

We opened 3 investigations into telco compliance with the emergency call service regulations:

• on 7 October 2025 in relation to an Optus outage in Dapto (NSW)
• on 8 October 2025 in relation to a Vodafone customer in Wentworth Falls (NSW) who was unable to call Triple Zero
• on 20 November 2025 in relation to a TPG customer in Ingleburn (NSW) who was unable to call Triple Zero.

Enforcing compliance with new protections to support telco customers experiencing domestic and family violence is an ACMA compliance and enforcement priority.

Telcos have important responsibilities under the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Standard. These include:

• supporting victim-survivors by using agreed contact methods
• offering support options such as 'clean slate' accounts
• protecting their privacy
• training staff to recognise and help at-risk consumers
• working with domestic and family violence experts to develop policies, procedures and training. 

On 1 July 2025, a limited number of telco responsibilities in the standard commenced, with the remaining provisions taking effect on 1 January 2026 for large telcos and 1 April 2026 for small telcos. These protections require telcos to make information available about the support they provide to affected customers and include prohibiting a telco from asking an affected person to engage with a perpetrator. 

Telcos are also responsible for reversing restrictions, suspensions, or disconnections of an affected person’s telco service in certain circumstances. 

In the September quarter, we undertook a compliance sweep of 50 telco websites. We assessed compliance with telco responsibilities to publish information about the support they offer affected people and how to access this. We initially found just under half of the telcos were non-compliant. 

In the December quarter, we sent targeted compliance letters to 17 telcos, requiring set-date compliance to address the compliance issues identified through the sweep. We are assessing the results of this action.

We also published updated guidance for telcos on the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Standard. This:

• sets out our expectations for compliance
• clarifies key concepts
• includes case studies to help telcos understand how to meet their obligations.

Complaints handling

We completed an investigation into Skymesh’s compliance with complaints record-keeping rules and assessed another telco’s compliance with the Complaints Handling Standard, arising from a systemic issue referral from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO).

We also issued a remedial direction to Best Telecom as part of our role in enforcing the TIO scheme. Our investigation found that, by failing to comply with a TIO decision relating to a customer complaint, Best Telecom breached important consumer protections under the TIO scheme and the Telecommunications Act 1997. 

The direction requires Best Telecom to refund the customer and implement new complaints-handling systems and processes to ensure future compliance with TIO decisions. It also requires Best Telecom to establish a training program for staff responsible for handling customer complaints.

We conducted a compliance sweep of 15 telco websites. The purpose of the sweep was to assess a sample of telcos’ compliance with specific Complaints Handling Standard responsibilities. Outcomes from this sweep will increase compliance and enforce complaints-handling rules to support vulnerable telco customers.

Financial hardship

We have a number of investigations underway into several telcos’ compliance with payment assistance and other important telco responsibilities under the Financial Hardship Standard.

We started 60 assessments and completed 38 assessments into telco compliance with consumer safeguards during the quarter. These assessments are an important source of industry intelligence. They resulted in:

• investigations
• direct compliance contacts with telcos
• ongoing telco monitoring
• industry education.

We completed 4 investigations into telco compliance with:

• Research authorisations under the Telco Act.
• Requirements to comply with a TIO decision.
• Critical Information Summary and advertising requirements.
• Statutory Infrastructure Provider notification requirements under Part 19 of the Telco Act.

We monitored compliance with 5 court-enforceable undertakings and one remedial direction during the quarter. These set out the actions telcos must take to improve their compliance with telco laws with the aim of improving consumer outcomes in the future. Our monitoring did not identify any compliance issues related to these. 

View our enforcement actions for breaches of telco laws.

We released the telco complaints report for the July to September 2025 quarter.

Across the industry, complaint resolution times fell on average from 5.8 days in the April to June 2025 quarter to 5.7 days in the July to September 2025 quarter. TIO escalation rates increased from 6.2% to 6.5%.

In the July to September 2025 quarter, the provider that received the least complaints per 10,000 services was Vonex (3), while Vodafone received the most complaints per 10,000 services (97).

The providers that resolved complaints the fastest were Moose Mobile, Starlink, Dodo and Telsim (one day on average). The provider that resolved complaints the slowest was Skymesh (20 days on average).

The provider with the lowest TIO referral rate was Kogan Mobile (1.7%), while the provider with the highest TIO referral rate was Skymesh (93.2%). 

We continue to work with underperforming providers to assess appropriate next steps.

The Consumer Consultative Forum met in-person on 12 November 2025 for the third and final meeting of 2025. Members highlighted ongoing concerns about:

• network resilience in natural disasters
• misleading or harmful telco practices affecting vulnerable consumers
• issues impacting consumers in regional and remote areas, including loss of coverage, lack of redundancy and misleading advice. 

Members also reported consumer fatigue in regional areas and the need for stronger support with connectivity literacy. A guest speaker from the Regional Tech Hub gave members an outline of its role in supporting regional consumers. We provided updates on strengthening Triple Zero resilience and compliance activities relating to family violence and financial hardship obligations.

A Numbering Advisory Committee meeting is planned for 25 March 2026.

Check the accessibility file for the information shown in the chart above. 

10.07 KB

Accessibility file: Action on telco consumer protections – October to December 2025