033/06
24 April 2006

National Relay Service Contract Announced

Australian Communication Exchange will continue to provide telecommunication relay services to help people who are deaf or have a hearing or speech impairment after signing a new contract with the Government, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan, announced today.

“The Australian Communication Exchange will continue to provide the relay service component of the National Relay Service but with enhanced services including the introduction of an Internet relay service and much stricter service level standards,” Senator Coonan said.

“Australian Communication Exchange, which has provided the relay service since its inception in 1995, is an Australian not-for-profit company employing around 200 staff with call centres based in Melbourne and Brisbane.”

The Australian Government’s National Relay Service provides people who are deaf or have a hearing or speech impairment with a standard telephone service comparable to the service available to other Australians.

Calls made through the National Relay Service are assisted by a relay officer so that people who are deaf or have a hearing or speech impairment, can type and read the conversation via a telecommunication device such as a teletypewriter.

In most cases the relay officer becomes ‘the voice’ and reads the deaf, hearing or speech impaired person’s conversation to the other person.

Under the new contract, Australian Communication Exchange will over the next year progressively introduce the Internet relay service and improvements to its IT platform and systems to enable it to comply with the enhanced performance standards to apply across all its services.

The Government has also recently announced a new National Relay Service Outreach provider, WestWood Spice, who will provide awareness raising and training for users of the National Relay Service.

Australian Communication Exchange will work with WestWood Spice to continue to provide this critically important service across Australia.

The contract will commence 1 July 2006.