IAA is leading a campaign to the Minister for Communications and Sport, the Hon. Anika Wells to call for telecommunications regulation that is practical, proportionate, and does not make it harder for small CSPs to operate.
We share our Members’ concerns that the recent onslaught of regulatory reform has been prompted by the failures of a small number of large, tier-1 providers, but is being applied across the whole industry. The result is heavy compliance costs for hundreds of providers that have done nothing wrong. If that continues, we risk pushing small operators out of the market and discouraging new ones from entering. Ultimately, this will leave consumers with less choice, higher prices and poorer service, particularly in regional and remote areas where small providers often fill gaps that larger companies have left.
Our Members support strong, fit-for-purpose consumer protection. We want to keep protections strong while keeping the market competitive.
We are calling for:
- Coordinated regulatory reform via a telecommunications regulatory initiatives grid
- Genuine and meaningful consultation with the breadth of industry, not just the tier-1 telcos
- Consolidation of the various consumer protections regulation under one regulatory instrument
- Proportionate obligations and liability that reflect the type of service and a provider’s size and role in the communications supply chain
- A review of the threshold used to define a “large provider”, with corresponding thresholds introduced for “medium” and “small” providers
- More practical support for small providers, such as realistic templates that can be adopted to yield a safe harbour for compliance
The letter has struck a chord across the industry. Since it launched with the support of 9 small and medium Member carriers and CSPs, the letter now has more than 20 supporters, and we want to keep up the momentum.
Especially with the ACMA’s result consultation on the proposed Telecommunications (Consumer Protections) Industry Standard 2026 that would introduce a huge amount of new obligations on industry, we are calling on Members to:
- Read the open letter: The full letter and list of requests is available on the IAA website.
- Add your support: If your organisation shares these concerns, email policy@internet.asn.au to sign on.
