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We’re proud to share that Narelle Clark, CEO of the Internet Association of Australia, has been officially inducted into the CommsDay Hall of Fame.
Announced at the 2025 CommsDay Summit in Sydney in June, this honour celebrates Narelle’s decades of impact across consumer advocacy, internet infrastructure, and policy. Her work has helped shape a more connected, inclusive, and resilient digital Australia.
As CEO of IAA, Narelle continues to lead with insight, integrity, and purpose championing a stronger, more community-focused internet for all.
Congratulations, Narelle a well-deserved recognition!
Telecommunications providers must act now to ensure compliance with the below major regulatory changes coming into force from as early as 30 June 2025:
- Telecommunications (Consumer Complaints Handling) Industry Standard Amendment 2025 (No. 1) – Commencing 30 June 2025
- Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages) Industry Standard Variation 2025 – Commencing 30 June 2025
- Telecommunications (Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Consumer Protections) Industry Standard 2025 – Commencing 1 July 2025
We have updated template packs provided on the IAA Member Portal to assist Members with their compliance obligations, but it is important Members understand new requirements arising from recent regulatory reform.
1. Expanded Complaints Handling Framework
From 30 June, telco providers will have to comply with new obligations in relation to handling complaints from consumers including:
- New “Network Outage Complaint” Category:
A new “network outage complaint” is now explicitly defined to align with the Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages) Industry Standard 2024. If a consumer reports loss of service and the provider suspects a network outage is occurring (either a major outage or significant local outage), the report must be treated as a formal network outage complaint
- Network Outage Complaints Handling Process:
Providers must establish a separate, documented process for handling network outage complaints and publish it on their website. IAA’s Template Complaints Handling Policy has been updated to include network outage complaints, and is available on the IAA Member Portal.
- Resolution Standards for Network Outage Complaints:
A network outage complaint is resolved once:- Service is restored, and
- A bulk resolution offer (e.g. compensation or credit) is communicated (if offered)
- Natural Disaster Exclusion:
Complaints related to outages triggered solely by natural disasters may be handled through standard complaint processes instead. - Improved Accessibility:
The ACMA have also introduced other changes unrelated to network outage complaints in relation to making complaints and complaints handling process more accessible. This includes, amongst other things, maintaining a direct link on the telco’s homepage and the help or support section of its website to display a list or table of each of the contact details the provider makes available to receive complaints, along with a statement that these contact points can be used to make a complaint.
2. Enhanced Communications During Outages
The Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages) Industry Standard has also been updated to introduce obligations in relation to ‘significant local outages’, which commence 30 June. Please note, obligations already exist in relation to ‘major outages’.
Variation Highlights:
- New defined term – ‘significant local outages’
‘Significant local outage’ is defined as unplanned adverse impact to your telco network that results in an end-user unable to establish and maintain a carriage service which affects:- ≥1,000 SIOs in regional Australia for a period of over 6 hours;
- ≥250 SIOs in remote Australia for a period of over 3 hours.
- Notification obligations in relation to a significant local outage
Carriers and CSPs must notify and communicate with select persons and groups at different stages including initial notification, regular updates, updates of material changes, and service restoration. IAA provides updated template kits including template notifications and communications that carriers and CSPs can send out in relation to both major outages and significant local outages in the IAA Member Portal. - Written Procedures
Telcos must update their public-facing Network Outage Communications Policy to include their procedures in relation to a significant local outage. A template policy is also included in the Template Kit provided by IAA.
3. New Protections for Persons Affected by Domestic, Family & Sexual Violence
ACMA has introduced a new industry standard to establish protections for persons affected by domestic, family and sexual violence. While the Standard commences from 1 July, telcos will have a longer timeframe to comply with many of the requirements. Below are only the compliance requirements that begin from 1 July:
- Reversal of service limitation for affected persons (s 13(3)-(5)):
If a service has been limited (e.g. suspended or disconnected), and the affected person urgently requests reversal due to a DFV safety risk, the telco must urgently reverse it on first contact, or offer an equivalent service if reversal isn’t practical. However, reversal isn’t required where doing so would breach another Commonwealth law (e.g. emergency call service obligations).
Must not require affected persons to engage with perpetrator (s 15(1)):
Telcos must not require a person affected by DFV to contact or interact with the perpetrator of the DFV or the perpetrator’s authorised representative. - Information about support offered (s 16)
Telcos must publish information on their website about the support they offer to people affected by domestic and family violence. If they don’t yet offer specific support, they must publish contact details for external support organisations and indicate when their own support services will become available. - DFV Policy (s 19-20)
Telcos must develop and implement a domestic and family violence (DFV) policy, that is approved by the telco’s most senior executive, and develop supporting procedures that meet specific standards. Large providers have 6 months, and small providers 9 months from 1 July to comply. - General DFV Training (s 21)
All personnel must receive DFV training, which can be delivered internally or via an expert 3rd party. Large providers have 9 months, and small providers 12 months from 1 July to complete training, with annual refreshers of the training to be completed. - Specialised DFV Training for Customer-Facing Staff (s 22)
Personnel in customer service, or likely to deal with DFV issues must complete specialised DFV training which covers applying the telco’s DFV policy and procedures, nature of DFV and its relationship to telco services, how to identify affected persons, intersectionality and DFV, engaging with affected persons, and recognising and prioritising safety of affected persons and the safety of personnel engaging with perpetrators. The specialised DFV training can be tailored to the role of the personnel, and may be delivered internally or via an expert 3rd party. Large providers have 9 months, and small providers 12 months from 1 July to complete training, with annual refreshers of the training to be completed. - Consultation requirements (s 32)
From 1 July, telcos must consult with and consider feedback from DFV support services and either people with lived experience or organisations representing at-risk groups when developing DFV policies and procedures (s 19), and training (s 21-22). Large providers must consult directly; small providers may do so via an industry body.
A large provider means a provider with at least 30,000 SIOs, and a small prover is a provider with less than 30,000 SIO.
Please note, IAA is considering whether and how to undertake the consultation requirements on behalf of our members that fall under the ‘small provider’ category. If you are interested in being represented by IAA, please let us know by contacting policy@internet.asn.au.
What Telcos Must Do
Compliance Area | Required Actions |
Complaints Handling (30 June) | Update processes and policies to handle and display network outage complaints separately. Update website to specify points of contact to make complaints. Ensure staff are trained to appropriately handle any network outage complaints as such. |
Network Outage Communications (30 June) | Update internal processes to ensure communications are sent in relation to significant local outages. Update public facing policy to include communications processes in relation to significant local outages. |
DFSV Protections (1 July) | Ensuring staff understand all obligations that will commence from 1 July that relate to persons affected by DFV – e.g. not requiring affected persons to contact perpetrators, reversing service limitations. Updating website to specify support information. Undertaking consultation requirements to develop DFV Policy, procedures and training. Training staff. |
If you have any questions about the any of the new regulation, please contact us at policy@internet.asn.au.
Written by: Sophia Joo | Senior Policy Officer & Company Secretary
⚡️Network Engineers & Internet Peering Enthusiasts, let's talk about something fundamental yet often misunderstood!⚡️
When we talk about the power and efficiency of the Internet, we often highlight Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) as critical interconnection hubs. And they absolutely are! However, it’s crucial to remember that a typical Internet Exchange fabric is a pure Layer 2 construct.
What does that mean in practical terms?
An IXP does NOT perform any routing for or on behalf of its peering participants.
Think of it this way:
It’s a giant, shared Ethernet switch. Your router connects to it, and its sole purpose is to forward Ethernet frames between connected participants’ routers based on MAC addresses.
Each participant is responsible for their own routing decisions. The IXP itself only influences which routes you learn from their route servers, or advertise via their route servers, based on things like attached control communities and RPKI ROA validity. This doesn’t include so-called “bi-lateral” BGP sessions with peering partners directly across the exchange, which are entirely free of IXP influence!
No IP forwarding tables, no MPLS labels, no routing protocols running within the IXP’s core fabric for participant traffic. Most IXP’s operational networks will have their own underlay routing, but that’s distinct from the participant traffic plane.
Why is this understanding critical?
– Troubleshooting: If you’re experiencing routing issues with a peer at an IXP, your focus should be on your BGP configuration, your router’s health, and the peer’s BGP configuration – not on the IXP “routing” your traffic incorrectly.
– Architecture: IXP peering is decentralised by nature. You’re effectively building direct relationships with others, not relying on a central router.
– Security: An IXP isn’t inspecting or manipulating your IP packets beyond some basic ingress filtering of “nuisance” traffic, to ensure the health of the exchange. Ultimately, the exchange simply provides physical and data link layer connectivity between networks.
– Performance: The beauty of Layer 2 is its speed and simplicity. It allows direct, low-latency communication between networks, which is exactly what IXPs want to give peers!
Next time you connect to an IXP, remember you’re essentially plugging into a massive switchboard designed for efficient, direct peer-to-peer conversations, not a traffic cop directing everyone’s data.
Written by: Matthew Kobayashi | IAA Peering Engineer
Great news, Adelaide! After months in the pipeline, 100Gbps ports ane now available across all SA-IX Points of Presence, delivering the high capacity your users demand.
More capacity. More content.
Our latest upgrade will support the surge in traffic from major content sources like Steam, Netflix, Google, and more – keeping your users connected and content flowing smoothly.
There’s never been a better time to level up.
Order your port via the IAA Member Portal now:
Date: Thursday, 8 May 2025
Time: 12.30pm – 1.30pm AEDT | 10.30am – 11.30am AWST
Venue: Via Zoom
The IAA Members Forum will be back this May. This Members-only event will be held virtually via Zoom. It’s a great opportunity for you to ask us questions and provide valuable feedback so that we may serve you better.
Pre-event IAA Member Survey
To help us prepare, please follow the link in the IAA Member Portal to our quick survey, when you register for this event. It’s a chance to give us feedback and ask questions in advance of the forum so we can better meet your needs and expectations.
There will be further opportunities to ask questions from the floor on the day as it is important to us that you have your say
Thanks for your input. We look forward to seeing you soon!
Registration closed. If you want to watch or review slides, links are below.
By RSVPing for this event, you are agreeing to comply with IAA’s Code of Conduct – Events.
Well, here we are in 2025! We’ve got some great plans for the year, with some fabulous events to mark our 30th anniversary. We’re really proud of our history and of the future we have. We have more upgrades and expansion planned, and are actively reviewing our footprint as well as any potential new locations. This year will see the end of our QV1 basement room and that truly will be the end of an era! If you still have kit in our QV1 room, please make sure you talk to the IAA team about its future.
We’re also kicking off the year with a significant change —our Member Portal now allows you to order 100G LR1 optical transceivers across any 100Gbps-enabled site. As the successor to 100GBASE-LR4, LR1 simplifies deployment, reduces failure points, and offers cost savings all round. In fact this is such a benefit we are offering members the optics free of charge on your new 100Gbps port!
Like many of you, over Christmas I had some quality time with the extended family, and part of this was with younger members just starting out in their working lives. These kids (actually young adults) are wondering what to do, and how best to get there, so the dinner table conversation headed to the paths people took in and along their careers.
Of course, I spent some time encouraging them into our industry and their questions followed quickly. What are the skills people need to get in? Where do they best get them?
If we look around, there are numerous pathways in and around the internet industry, and some of them are less available than they were. It seems the engineering degree I completed is no longer running, but there are countless online resources that teach a lot of really useful material for the motivated learner. Microcredentials and TAFE courses too seem pretty solid, and even starting with some of the electrical or cabling certificates which are quite short, will certainly help them along. (Given I seem to be breaking all my home cabling, I might need to re-enrol in one of those myself!) The vendor certificates aren’t the guarantee of a well-paid job they once were, but many do give a good grounding for those starting out. A quick search on Seek also shows a pile of traineeships available: is this a path our Members offer?
I’d love to hear your thoughts about where and how we grow the next generation of talent. Please send them through as this is an area we’ll explore some more this year.
Happy peering!
Narelle
IAA CEO
