Last year, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) announced it would address mobile phone “bill shock” by revising the appropriate regulations, specifically the Telecommunications Consumer Protection Code (TCP). Unfortunately, two proposals for the changes, drafted by the Communications Alliance, the “unified voice for the Australian communications industry“, have been given the thumbs-down by the ACMA. As such, it’s unlikely they’ll be put into force by the original August 1 deadline.
While the proposals ticked most of the required boxes, the ACMA mentioned in April that it wasn’t happy with the details on advertising and usage tools, as well as information regarding presales. ZDNet writes that a new, third proposal was handed to the ACMA at the end of last month, but if this proposal was better than the previous two, the ACMA is staying quiet about it.
What it means is that August will likely come and go without the revised TCP so, while the telcos have been warned about advertising less-than-honest deals and plans, we’re still waiting for a full complement of legal tools to combat the practice.
Telco complaints jump 8.6% [ZDNet]
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