Telco customers who need extra help

You can complain if your telco is not meeting these needs.

Some people may depend on their landline service because of a serious illness. You may be eligible for priority assistance if your diagnosed condition is life-threatening.

Telcos have to treat complaints as urgent from people with priority assistance.

Telcos must offer their products and services in a way that meets the Disability Discrimination Act.

Their websites should meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

You may need to use special equipment with your standard phone service. For more information on which phone would be the right fit, visit this page. They need to provide information that is clear and easy to understand. This helps you and your telco to identify the features you need. It also helps you understand how the equipment works.

Telcos should help customers who don't speak English as a first language. This may include:

• training their sales representatives how to communicate with you effectively in English
• using plain language whenever possible in their contracts

They may have advertisements in other languages. If so, they should provide a reasonable amount of information to help people speaking those languages.

Telcos must make a reasonable effort for disadvantaged or vulnerable customers. This may include extra training for sales staff.

If you can't pay your bill, the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code protects you. Your telco needs to offer a range of financial hardship measures that you may be you eligible for. Also, if you owe money but are disputing it through a complaint, your telco can't take action to recover the debt until the complaint is resolved. 

Find out how telcos help if you are in financial hardship.

The NBN’s satellite service provides broadband in regional and remote Australia. Find out about the service at NBN Co.