Overview

Recently the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), the peak body representing telecommunications consumers, and the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) have called for stronger telecommunications consumer protections, arguing that the proposed Telecommunications Consumer Protection (TCP) code falls short of meeting community expectations for an essential services sector.

How would the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) or the Australian Media and Communication Authority (ACMA) enforce a revised TCP code that meets consumer expectations? There is a need for minimum performance standards that provide the foundation for enforcement. This talk describes the factors that should be measured and how minimum performance standards might be constructed.

Learning outcomes

In this presentation, you will gain insights into:

1. what constitutes a telecommunications outage and its impact on residential and business customers,
2. the current legislation and regulations—and why recent updates may not effectively improve consumer and business outcomes,
3. the role of minimum performance standards in strengthening telecommunications resilience.

Program outline

Online:

• 6.00 pm AEST: Presentation begins
• 7.00 pm AEST: Presentation ends

In-person:

• 5.30 pm AEST: Guest arrivals and registrations
• 6.00 pm AEST: Presentation begins
• 7.00 pm AEST: Event concludes

About the speaker

Dr Mark Gregory FIEAust CPEng

Associate Professor - School of Engineering, RMIT University

Biography

Associate Professor Mark Gregory is Australia's leading academic researcher into the Australian telecommunications market. Over the past decade, Dr Gregory has made many submissions to government and ACCC inquiries related to telecommunications policy and regulation. He has published on topics like universal service, network engineering, improving telecommunications access and performance and regional and remote telecommunications performance. 
Dr Gregory is the General Chair of the International Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference. Dr Gregory received a national teaching award in 2009 and life membership of the Telecommunications Association for service to the association and the Australian telecommunications community.