172/04
16 December 2004
ACA report card shows phone companies are meeting regulatory requirements
The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan today welcomed the Australian Communications Authority's (ACA's) latest report card on the performance of Australia 's telecommunications industry for the September 2004 quarter.
The ACA's Telecommunications Performance Monitoring Bulletin - September 2004 Quarter shows most performance indicators for the connection and repair of telephone services, as well as the maintenance of public payphones, either remained steady or improved in comparison with previous quarters.
"All four major telephone providers achieved at least 97 per cent overall compliance with specified regulatory timeframes for the connection of telephone services for residential and small business customers," Senator Coonan said.
"Optus and Primus achieved excellent results in this category with approximately 99 per cent compliance nationally.
"We are very pleased to see that Telstra's national fixed telephone fault repair performance has improved for the second quarter in a row. Nationally, Telstra recorded 93 per cent compliance with specified timeframes and Optus' results were also very high at 98 per cent.
"The Bulletin shows that where specified timeframes were not met, Telstra and Optus complied with the regulatory timeframes to make automatic customer payment 100 per cent of the time.
"Regulatory measures are obviously having an impact on delivery of services to telecommunications consumers across the country."
While generally high, the reliability of Telstra's fixed telephone network is slightly below the very strong performance results achieved during the same quarter in 2003.
The performance data identifies some localised areas where there appears to be scope for improving service reliability and the Government expects Telstra and the ACA to focus attention on these areas.
The ACA has recently completed a review of the regulatory arrangements governing service reliability on the Telstra network. The Government is still considering recommendations made in the report and how changes to increase reliability of Telstra's fixed phone network could be achieved.
"I am pleased to see evidence the regulatory framework has led to Telstra focusing its attention on those services which experience repeat faults in a short space of time," Senator Coonan said.
The Bulletin also includes an item on Telstra's response to Regional Telecommunications Inquiry (RTI) recommendations relating to telephone performance, telephone congestion caused by older pair gain systems and poor dial-up Internet speeds.
"The report shows that Telstra has responded positively to recommendations of the RTI," Senator Coonan said.
"To improve performance in its worst performing exchange service areas Telstra has invested in a $10 million program of remediation work and the report shows that performance of most exchange areas has improved.
"The ACA report also shows Telstra is dealing with problems about congestion and dial-up Internet speeds within its network. The ACA has received data on the improved performance and reduced congestion levels on older pair gains systems."
Telstra's performance against its licence condition to provide a minimum dial-up Internet speed of 19.2kbps or the equivalent throughput over its fixed line network has been reported upon favourably in the Bulletin .
Under the licence condition Telstra is required to meet specific timeframes when helping customers achieve 19.2kbps. It does this through an online and technical help service.
In the September 2004 quarter 12,405 enquiries were made to the online help service , of which 92.7 per cent were resolved and the remainder were addressed by Telstra's technical help service.
The RTI also looked at payphone fault repair. In response to the RTI Telstra is implementing a ten point plan to improve payphone repair performance, particularly in rural and remote areas.
"The Bulletin shows that Telstra's performance in repairing payphone faults in remote areas has improved by 25 per cent over the same period last year," Senator Coonan said,
"The ACA's special report demonstrates the ongoing progress that has been made in implementing RTI initiatives by Telstra.
"This latest Bulletin from the ACA reveals strong performance from all of Australia 's major phone companies and demonstrates the effectiveness of the Government's regulations on delivering high quality phone services to all consumers."
The ACA Bulletin is available from the ACA website at www.aca.gov.au
Media Contact: Jane McMillan 0438 690 305