From CommsDay of 30 September 2026
Many important stories were published by CommsDay this week. We have chosen the article from Wednesday’s CommsDay on the ACMA’s draft Consumer Code as the Story of the Week. The Consumer Code is a long term, continuing project, with a lot of further developments to come.
ACMA proposes sweeping replacement for telecoms consumer code
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has proposed a directly enforceable standard to replace the 2019 Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code, with detailed new rules on sales practices, staff incentives, credit assessments, payments and customer remedies.
The draft would require telcos to report identiϐied misselling every quarter, prescribe how sales bonuses are calculated, and give customers specific rights when mobile coverage falls short or a provider’s technology change affects their service or device. It combines obligations developed through the industry code review with additional requirements written by ACMA.
The proposal follows a prolonged attempt to revise the existing code. The Australian Telecommunications Alliance submitted a replacement in May 2025, but ACMA declined to register it that October and issued a notice identifying deficiencies in the operative 2019 Code. The Alliance submitted another draft in November. In March 2026, ACMA said it still did not have a code it could register and would instead make an industry standard under section 125 of the Telecommunications Act 1997.
ACMA says the 2019 Code has failed to provide adequate safeguards in areas including responsible selling, credit assessments and the treatment of customers in vulnerable circumstances. Its consultation paper cites Federal Court penalties of $50 million against Telstra and $100 million against Optus following Australian Competition and Consumer Commission cases over unconscionable
sales. The cases involved First Nations customers and customers with disabilities, respectively. The code review began before the Optus penalty.
The move also follows a sustained campaign by the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network and politicians including the Greens against what they describe as telco self-regulation.
Telcos dispute that description. They say the existing system is co-regulation: industry develops a code with stakeholders, including consumer representatives, and ACMA decides whether it meets the statutory test for registration.
Among the most prescriptive provisions are those governing sales incentives. The Alliance’s November draft proposed controls on rewards and consequences for misselling. ACMA’s draft would cap a staff member’s maximum performance payment entitlement at 20% of base salary, limit sales volume and value measures to 30% of that entitlement, and require customer feedback scores to account for at least 70%. Providers would have to withhold rewards linked to non-compliant sales, take reasonable steps to recover payments already made where lawful, and exclude the staff member from future performance payments for at least three months.
ACMA calls the approach a “reasonable compromise” that would address inappropriate selling while allowing providers to reward staff. The remuneration provisions also raise a question about the scope of its power. Section 113 of the Act lists examples of matters an industry standard may cover but does not expressly mention pay; the list is not exhaustive. Section 125 authorises a replacement standard dealing with the matter or matters in which the registered code was found deϐicient. ACMA will need to explain how its controls on the amount, composition and recovery of staff payments fit within that authority.
The standard would also bring some conduct already covered by Australian Consumer Law into ACMA’s regular supervision. Its definition of mis-selling includes false or misleading claims about a product’s price or features, and providers would report identified instances quarterly. The Act requires ACMA to consult the ACCC before making a standard; how the agencies would coordinate cases within both their remits remains a practical question.
The draft leaves its general commencement date blank. It gives providers 12 months to meet its digital accessibility requirement and delays the first mis-selling reporting quarter for smaller providers, but does not set out a general staged start for the other obligations. ACMA has asked which provisions may need delayed commencement.
The 2019 Code remains in force during consultation. Submissions on the proposed standard close on 10 November 2026.
Grahame Lynch
IN TODAY’S COMMSDAY (Friday 2 October 2026)
The NZ Commerce Commission will examine whether the proposed RAN infrastructure joint venture between One NZ and 2degrees could give the pair excessive buying power over equipment and service suppliers as part of its preliminary assessment of the deal’s competition implications.
The Coalition and the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network have separately called for Temporary Disaster Roaming to be mandated, as the new industry-led capability went live across Telstra, Optus and TPG Telecom yesterday.
ASX-listed Australian technical services contractor BSA is seeking to acquire tethered-drone technology company Eonetics, saying the deal would expand its access to Tier 1 and Tier 2 telco customers and open new recurring revenue streams.
The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network has urged the Productivity Commission to ensure that any streamlining or reduction of non-financial business reporting requirements does not negatively impact consumers.
The Australian Telecommunications Alliance has questioned the need for the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman to increase the non-privacy related non-financial loss compensation limit.
A new Australia-New Zealand directors association, Digital Directors Australia, is campaigning to increase technology expertise in corporate boardrooms, arguing most ASX boards remain poorly equipped to govern technology even as AI, cybersecurity and digital transformation become central business issues.
The advisory group charged with helping close the digital inclusion gap for First Nations Australians has warned that artificial intelligence could deepen existing disadvantage unless governments address gaps in connectivity, affordability and digital skills.
Telecoms expense management specialist TeleResult, IT cost consultancy CDRU and financial management software provider ClearCost have combined into a single group brand, Aligned Outcomes, which was launched yesterday in Sydney.
The Rural Connectivity Group has reached the milestone of having connected 600 sites across New Zealand to its shared radio access network.
The number of active satellites orbiting Earth has jumped 29% in a year to almost 17,000, driven heavily by the continued expansion of SpaceX’s Starlink broadband constellation.
The US Federal Communications Commission has adopted new rules that will make more than 1GHz of spectrum in the 12.7GHz and 42GHz bands available for services including satellite broadband.
The Office of the eSafety Commissioner has said that 3 million people have participated in the Be Connected digital literacy program.
A new report from the NSW Small Business Commission has found that 47% of small businesses in the state currently use AI tools to support their work, with 27% using them regularly.
SpaceX has established Starlink Point of Presence infrastructure in Cyberjaya, Malaysia, designed to keep more satellite broadband traffic local and improve service quality.
_______________________________
CommsDay is published by Decisive Publishing, S704 6A Glen St Milsons Point NSW
ACN: 065 084960 Mailing Address: PO Box 490 Milsons Point NSW 1565 Australia
TO SUBMIT EDITORIAL FEEDBACK OR INQUIRIES: gr**********@**********il.com
TO ENQUIRE ABOUT A SUBSCRIPTION: vi***@**********il.com
