New federal customer service instrument targets tardy telcos

Australian telcos may have to lift their levels of customer service, following the federal government’s announcement of an instrument to enforce the Customer Service Guarantee (CSG) standard, in order to better protect telecommunications users.

The instrument’s full title is ‘Telecommunications (Customer Service Guarantee - Retail Performance Benchmarks) Instrument (No.1) 2011’, and will come into effect on 1 October 2011.

According to Stephen Conroy, Federal Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, the instrument will force “larger carriage service providers (CSPs)” to improve the quality of their telephone services.

A ‘larger carriage service provider’ is defined by the government as a service provider that offers at least 100,000 CSG services Australia-wide - but this definition is not standard, with specific thresholds for urban, rural and remote areas.

The distinction between smaller and larger CSPs is to minimise compliance burdens on smaller providers, according to Conroy.

“The CSG Standard is designed to protect consumers against poor customer service by setting time frames to be met by service providers for the connection, fault repair and keeping of appointments in relation to standard telephone services provided under the Customer Service Guarantee Standard,” Conroy said.

But the existing standard has not proved to be effective in curtailing telco misbehaviour by itself.

“Reporting by ACMA has shown the existing CSG Standard does not do enough to ensure service providers maintain or improve service quality, particularly in regional and remote areas,” Conroy said.

Specifically, the new instrument will require larger CPSs to meet particular time frames 90% of the time when connecting new services, repairing existing ones and turning up to appointments.

Should a CSP fail to meet this 90% requirement, they may face fines from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).

The exact amounts of these fines have yet to be defined, but may reach as high as $2 million.