Help keep Australia’s telco market competitive
Australia’s smaller telecommunications providers help keep prices competitive, improve service, and give customers alternatives. Growing regulatory demands could make it harder for those providers to enter the market, compete, or survive.
Join IAA and our Members in calling upon the Australian Government to keep consumer protections strong while ensuring smaller providers can continue to compete. Add your support to our open letter.
You do not need to be an IAA Member to support this effort. Simply email us with your name and company logo.
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Smaller providers face a disproportionate burden
Major telcos have teams to manage complex compliance requirements. Smaller operators must meet growing demands with far fewer people and resources.
Policies, training, reporting, monitoring, and systems changes absorb a much greater share of a small provider’s capacity. That raises barriers for new businesses and makes it harder for existing providers to grow or keep operating.
IAA and our members are particularly concerned about the draft Telecommunications (Consumer Protections) Industry Standard 2026 (TCP Standard), which is currently the subject of ACMA consultation.
What will the proposed rules mean in practice?
For a small provider, implementing the TCP Standard would draw heavily on the same people and resources customers rely on for their service.
In a small team, the people implementing new compliance requirements are often the same people fixing connections and answering customers’ calls. Changes to billing systems, staff training, sales processes, reporting, and record keeping all draw on that limited capacity, leaving less time and money to deliver and improve the services customers rely on.
The proposed requirements would create substantial implementation work across the business, or in some cases, aren’t operationally feasible at all. For example:
- Providers would bear the responsibility and risk for network operations outside of its control. Obligations such as updating usage information, whitelisting select numbers lie with the upstream carrier, and not the service provider, but the rules don’t reflect this.
- Reconfigure billing and payment, and communications and notifications systems. Introduce new direct debit notices, payment options, overdue account processes, and customer notifications even where the software is controlled by an external supplier and changes depend on that supplier’s timetable.
- Train and assess staff every year, and document quarterly compliance monitoring. Even a one-person provider would need to organise training, assess staff, and maintain evidence of regular checks, alongside running the network and supporting customers.
- Credit assessments for residential contracts that create debts above $300. Reduced thresholds for mandatory credit assessments, adding costs and administration to connecting each affected customer, and in some cases, customers unable to be serviced.
These implementation costs fall disproportionately on smaller providers, making it harder to enter the market, expand, and compete. Ultimately, consumers will face fewer choices and higher prices as providers are forced to pass-on costs, or leave the market entirely.
Consumers will pay the price
- When smaller providers are squeezed out, customers lose choices. Bigger telcos face less pressure to keep prices down, improve service, and innovate.
- Regional and remote communities could be particularly affected, as smaller providers often serve areas where suitable alternatives are already limited.
- The major telcos whose failures helped drive reform could emerge with even less competition.
We are asking for practical changes
The TCP Standard is an immediate concern, but the problem extends across multiple overlapping reforms.
As such, our open letter to the Minister for Communications broadly calls for:
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Coordinated reform, with the combined impact of new obligations assessed before they are introduced.
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Meaningful consultation with smaller providers, alongside the major telcos.
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Simpler requirements, consolidating overlapping consumer protection rules.
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Proportionate obligations, reflecting a provider’s size, services, and responsibilities.
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Practical support, including approved templates, training resources, and realistic implementation timeframes.
IAA held a Member briefing to outline the proposed obligations under the TCP Standard and IAA’s concerns on the likely impact on small CSPs. You can watch a recording of this briefing:
Together we can keep Australia’s telco market competitive
Support our call for effective consumer protections and a market where smaller providers can enter, compete, and thrive. Read the open letter, then email us at policy@internet.asn.au with your name and logo to add your support. Each additional supporter strengthens our call for the Government to act.
IAA advocates for a competitive internet industry and practical regulation that reflects the realities of smaller providers. Become a Member to support this work, contribute your experience, and help shape our advocacy.