The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is preparing to tighten up the rules for telemarketers and researchers. This will affect how they are allowed to interact with you over the phone - in a good way. Here are the proposed changes that you need to know about.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority is responsible for legislation, regulations, standards and codes of practice across telecommunications, broadcasting, radio communications and the internet. But what does this actually mean in practice? This infographic provides a fascinating snapshot of the authority's activities over the past financial quarter; from skewering pesky telemarketers to tackling complaints about the NBN.

Other than waving your phone in the air like a Star Trek tricorder, there's not much you can do if you're getting poor reception on your phone. In metropolitan areas, it's a brief annoyance, but head out to more rural locations and crappy signals are a way of life. Consumer-level signal boosters can provide some relief, however, not only are they illegal in Australia, but selfish to use, killing reception for other nearby users.

New figures from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) show that the average Australian uses 650MB of data each month. That serves as a reminder that if your mobile plan offers less than 1GB, you're likely to end up paying too much.

Internet service providers iiNet and Dodo have both come under fire from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for consumer protection law breaches relating to direct debits. The companies were warned for not complying with customers' authorisation for direct debit payments and failing to cancel a direct debit authorisation within three working days upon request. Read on for the full list of charges.

One of the jobs of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is to track whether phone companies and internet service providers are meeting regulatory requirements. Today, it announced it had issued formal warnings to 39 providers for not meeting basic requirements around paperwork and customer information. That would make us cautious about using any of them.

Mobile phone ownership is near-ubiquitous in Australia — if you're under 65. After that, it turns out people are a lot keener on the old-fashioned land line (Internet connection optional).

So you know how the youth of today is so addicted to technology that they Snapchat each other while sitting on the same couch? Despite that lazy media stereotype, it turns out that teens actually use less data than adults.

Well, this seems overdue. While some mobile providers have long offered free calls to 13, 1300 and 1800 numbers, in their plans, many others haven't. Regulator the Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) had originally planned to introduce legislation in January 2015 making fee-free calls compulsory, but now the major telcos have agreed to make at least some of those calls free ahead of that deadline.

So here's a concrete example of how data charges are still a problem: the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has issued a formal warning to frequently-troubled provider Dodo for failing to send data usage alerts to its customers.

So this is why your 4G connection is feeling slower as time passes: Aussies love mobile broadband way too much. A new report from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) clarifies just how much: we're using 1000 times more mobile data than we were in 2006.

A new survey by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) suggests that 14 million adult Australians have accessed "cloud computing" services. However, a closer look at the data suggests that only a tiny proportion of them are fully taking advantage of cloud technologies.

How's this for some ACMA-ception: scammers looking to lift your personal details are posing as representatives for the Australian Communications And Media Authority and its "Do Not Call" register. It stands to reason that you should not, in fact, give them any info about yourself.

So this is the statistical proof that telemarketing companies should give up now: two-thirds of Australian households with a landline are on the Do Not Call Register, and the numbers continue to rise. According to the Australian Communications and Marketing Authority (ACMA), almost nine million numbers are now listed on the register, with one million of those signing up within the last 12 months.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is introducing new rules to make it less likely Australian travellers will suffer a horrendous case of bill shock when they return from an overseas holiday and discover a massive global roaming bill. Here's how the new system will work (and why anyone using a carrier other than the big three won't notice changes for a long time).

ACMA (that's the Australian Communications and Media Authority) is seeking public consultation on what the contemporary broadcasting codes of practice should actually contain. What changes do you think should be made?

If you've held off from joining the Do Not Call Register for some reason, there's now an added incentive to get your act together: the government has just extended the registration period to eight years. That's nearly a decade of interruption-free nirvana.

Critical information summaries (CIS), which provide an easy-to-follow summary of the main costs associated with mobile phone plans, have been compulsory for Australian phone providers since the beginning of March, and make it much easier for consumers to ensure they don't get caught out by unexpected plan conditions. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is already enforcing that requirement, and says it has already told 38 providers to make sure they are following the code.

Beleaguered group deal provider Groupon has come under the ire of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for sending multiple email newsletters to people without their consent. Affected customers found they were unable to completely unsubscribe from the service despite making attempts to do so.