In August, the ACMA announced being able to directly enforce its new NBN migration rules, with the federal government agency’s powers backed up by the ability to commence court proceedings to seek injunctions and civil penalties of up to AU$10 million.

Publishing its compliance and enforcement statement of approach that month, the ACMA said the new regulations will ensure consumers have better access to information on NBN services, are given backup options if services are not working, and have complaints addressed faster and more effectively.

“The ACMA is putting telcos on notice that they need to fully understand the new rules and take immediate steps to embed them in their business practices,” O’Loughlin said.

“The ACMA has already commenced a targeted program of monitoring, audits, and investigations to ensure that industry is complying with the new rules.”

The ACMA had been ordered by the federal government to research NBN migration issues in August last year; in December, it then published the new consumer protections to be implemented during the migration to NBN services, after finding that connection issues may not be resolved for over 100 days on some technologies.

As a result of its investigation, the federal government agency in July introduced its final rules for the transition of consumers onto the NBN, including the requirements for line tests and copper speed tests.

Retailers are now also required to provide interim services if a customer has no access to an NBN service within three days.

O’Loughlin added that the ACMA will report regularly on industry compliance, customer experience, and enforcement activities, which could include civil penalties of up to AU$10 million on top of injunctions.

The ACMA in June unveiled its Consumer Information Standard and Service Continuity Standard, which both commenced on September 21. The former requires retail service providers (RSPs) to provide a key facts sheet to all NBN customers, while the latter ensures consumers have access to a broadband service at all times.

“Together, these rules will require telcos to specify the minimum information that telcos must provide to consumers; ‘line test’ new services to ensure that lines are working and that faults are identified early; reconnect consumers to legacy network services where readily feasible if a consumer is unable to get a working service over the NBN network; comply with minimum standards for handling of consumer complaints; and report data about the complaints they receive to the ACMA so these can be monitored,” O’Loughlin said back in April.

Last month, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) reported that while complaints were up marginally for the year, they began dropping in the final quarter including across the NBN.

Complaints increased by 6.2 percent year on year, but dropped by 17.8 percent quarter on quarter in Q4.

TPG last week took out the third NBN speed-monitoring report from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), delivering 88.7 percent of its maximum plan speeds overall and 88.4 percent during busy hours for downloads.

TPG likewise scored highest on average upload speeds, providing 89.2 percent of its maximum plan speeds overall and 89.1 percent during busy hours.

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