Suddenly people have lots of questions about the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code and how it works. So we’ve added an FAQ section to the site. Initially we’ll be focusing on the Critical Information Summary rules.
The FAQ will grow organically and if you can’t yet find what you need, ask your own question.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has, as you’d expect, posted a news item on its website about the TCP Code rules that came into force on 1 March 2013. The post is a good example of something that is true, but still potentially misleading.
We’ll explain …
There’s a time-honoured tradition in telco retailing: if you need a legal document, copy one from somebody else’s website. It’s never the right thing to do but, as a way to create a Critical Information Summary under the TCP Code, it’s particularly unwise.
Here’s why …
For small telcos, one of the TCP Code’s greatest challenges is the ‘usage notification’ rules for included value plans and post-paid broadband services with included data allowances. In fact, the Code developers were so aware that the rules would be difficult to comply with, they set a long lead time for new systems to be implemented … as late as 1 September 2014 in some cases.
But the notification rules only apply to a limited class of customers. They don’t apply to business customers. They don’t even apply to all residential customers. They only apply to residential customers who contract with their service provider under the ‘SFOA’ provisions in Part 23 of the Telecommunications Act 1997. This offers a way for telcos to sidestep the rules, but it is probably only practicable for small telcos …
The new Critical Information Summary can be trickier to get right than you imagine. Randomly, we picked a CIS from Australian Phone & Internet as a case study. There’s a lot to like, but overall the CIS isn’t compliant with the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code 2012.
We’ll explain why …
Telcos that have registered with TCP Code monitor Communications Compliance via its website can now download a template for the Customer Information Compliance Statement (CICS) that the TCP Code requires to be lodged by 1 April 2013, and annually thereafter.
The template isn’t a substitute for a full compliance checklist, because it doesn’t explicitly cover all the TCP Code’s requirements for publicly available information (eg how it is to be presented). But we now know in detail what the monitor requires to be covered in your lodged CICS document.
By now, every telco that is subject to the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code should have received a ‘welcome letter’ from the new Code monitor Communications Compliance Limited.
If yours hasn’t yet arrived, TCPCode com.au suggests that you contact Comms Compliance via its new website, without delay.
We’ll outline the letter and its contents.
The TCP Code specifies a strict order for the topics in a telco’s Critical Information Summary (CIS). And it specifies the exact headings to appear in the document. And it specifies one particular sentence that must appear verbatim. Make sure you have all these things correct before you release a CIS to the public.
And one more thing: Make sure the CIS complies with the law outside the TCP Code as well.
Communications Compliance, the new TCP Code monitor, has gone live on the web.
The newly launched site contains background material about CommCom (as it’s coming to be known) and its personnel, the TCP Code itself and the documents telcos will need to lodge by 1 April 2013, and every year after that.
And it provides a ‘CSP Area’ where telcos can log in and interact with the Code monitor.
The TCP Code calls on Code compliance monitor Communications Compliance to establish TCP Code enforcement arrangements for cooperation with other compliance stakeholders, including ACMA, Last week, CommCom and ACMA exchanged a Memorandum of Understanding that describes how the two organisations expect to work together.
Central to the document are the timelines for CommCom to report Code non-compliance to ACMA and ACMA’s responses.
