How an unaffordable, unaccountable telco sector hurts consumers

These days, it is rare that we get good news about our phone and internet connections. It's even rarer when this good news doesn't cost us anything more.

Yet as of mid-September, NBN has ramped up speed tiers for homes and businesses on fixed-line connections. It will mean many plans - though not all - will double or triple in speed. Some popular plans have received a fivefold boost.

And this will happen at no extra cost to consumers. But as with every silver lining there is a dark cloud.

These increased speeds will only deepen the gulf between the digital haves and have-nots in Australia. The change means that faster plans will be getting faster - but lower speed plans won't be affected.

So if you pay more, you will get even more now. If you are going for a value plan (25 or 50mbps) or can't afford a more expensive plan - you will see no benefit from this.

This growing inequity is a serious issue given the essential nature of communications in our lives today.

ACCAN's newly developed Consumer Sentiment Tracker, shows nearly nine in 10 consumers say their home internet connection is vital and they require either constant or nearly constant access (89 per cent of consumers).

And price is the most important factor to consumers when considering their mobile (47 per cent) or home internet plans (41 per cent).

It is troubling that only 18 per cent of surveyed consumers have a high trust that telcos will work to keep costs low and only 19 per cent have high trust that telcos will act in the best interests of consumers.

These damningly low trust findings reflect a huge challenge for the telecommunications sector in Australia today.

As recent unconscionable conduct cases have demonstrated, it is an industry that has not done enough to protect consumers. It is unaccountable, with a history littered with episodes in which it has tried to rip-off some of its most vulnerable customers.

This is due in part to the Telecommunications Consumer Protection (TCP) Code - which covers sales practices, credit assessments, financial hardship and domestic and family violence provisions - and is self-regulated by the industry.

This has meant that too often the code has provided no protection at all to those who need it the most.

There is currently a bill before Parliament - the Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025 (TECS Bill ) to strengthen the powers and penalties available to the regulator regarding industry codes. This bill is welcome and should be passed as a matter of priority.

But a bill is only as strong as the code it enforces. Right now, the TCP Code offers limited and ambiguous protections. That leaves the regulator hamstrung - even accounting for the new powers and tougher penalties, there's not much they can do if the rules themselves are weak.

So while the TECS Bill makes important progress in areas such as carrier registration and enforcement, when it comes to consumer protections it's really just putting lipstick on a pig.

The Fair Call Coalition - an alliance of over 20 consumer organisations - is now calling on the regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), to scrap the self-regulatory code and move to directly regulate essential telco protections.

Even the regulator itself has expressed concerns about the inadequacy of the status quo.

Evidence obtained by ACCAN through freedom-of-information laws (FOI) highlights that the ACMA resolved to move to direct regulation of key protections unless significant progress on these matters were achieved through code revisions by the end of 2023.

Two years later, intervention from former Communications Minister, Michelle Rowland, has resulted in enforceable industry standards for consumers experiencing financial hardship and domestic and family violence.

But the ACMA has failed to act on other critical issues such as poor sales practices and inadequate credit assessments which continue to harm consumers.

While heavily redacted, the FOI documents paint a picture of a regulator who recognises ongoing consumer harm, yet through delays and inaction continues to tolerate the deficiencies it has identified in the code.

This is despite the ACCC's view that the code contained 'fundamental shortcomings', mounting evidence of safeguard gaps from its own consumer study and mass exit from the code review process by 22 consumer groups.

The TCP Code was submitted to the ACMA for registration on 19 May 2025, after a review that has taken more than two years.

Three months later, we are still waiting for a decision. The ACMA's reluctance to intervene has left consumers without appropriate protections for far too long. Such complacency by the regulator is unacceptable.

We have no confidence that the Code will ever provide appropriate community safeguards to the standard expected by consumers and contemporary Australian society.

The only answer is to move to direct regulation. Self-regulation by the telecommunications industry has been a failure.

It is now time for the ACMA to take strong and swift action by refusing to register the flawed industry drafted code.

While many are enjoying faster NBN speeds this week - vulnerable consumers still miss out on fundamental protections from often predatory sales practices and credit assessments. Too many are being unfairly treated by their telco - and direct regulation is the only solution.