CX news · Regulation and trust
The ACMA's draft telco consumer standard: what changes for the customer journey
In short
On 29 September 2026 the ACMA released a draft Telecommunications (Consumer Protections) Industry Standard to replace the industry-written code. It reaches across the whole telco journey: information before a sale, responsible selling, sales incentives, credit checks, support, cancelling, billing, payment options and disconnection. Submissions close on 10 November 2026. In October, new laws lifted penalties for breaches. For telcos and their partners, this is a journey change, not only a compliance change.
Who this is for: CX, operations, sales and compliance leads at telcos, internet providers, resellers and the retail and contact centre partners that sell or support their services.
What changed, and when
On 27 March 2026 the ACMA announced it would make an enforceable industry standard to replace the Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code. That code has been the main set of protections for residential and small business telco customers on advertising, responsible selling, fair treatment of vulnerable consumers, and credit and debt management.
The ACMA said it still did not have before it a code capable of registration, after an industry development process that began in 2023. ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin pointed to network outages, Triple Zero unavailability, shortcomings in the 3G shutdown and significant issues with responsible selling as reasons confidence had been undermined.
On 29 September 2026 the ACMA published the draft standard and a consultation paper. Submissions are open until 5pm AEDT on Tuesday 10 November 2026. The existing 2019 code stays in force until the new standard commences.
What the draft asks telcos to do
The ACMA's consultation page summarises the draft as requiring telcos to:
- have systems, processes, training and accountability in place to deliver fair outcomes for consumers
- give consumers information so they can understand, compare and choose the right product
- sell responsibly, so consumers are sold products that meet their needs, with remedies if mis-selling occurs
- follow rules on sales incentive and performance payment arrangements
- make it easy to get support, cancel a service simply and promptly, and only transfer services with informed consent
- give clear billing information, easy account support, flexible payment options and tools to manage usage
- disconnect only as a last resort, after reasonable steps to help consumers manage payment difficulties or reach financial hardship assistance
Penalties went up in October
On 15 October 2026 the ACMA welcomed the passage of the Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025. It significantly increases maximum civil penalties for corporate breaches of industry codes, industry standards and service provider determinations, and strengthens infringement notices.
Registered industry codes also become directly enforceable, so the ACMA can act without first directing a provider to comply. A new telco registration scheme will, as a last resort, let the ACMA keep providers with serious compliance failures out of the market. Acting ACMA Chair Adam Suckling said the reforms will let the regulator “act earlier and more directly”.
What it means for the customer journey
Read the draft list again and it is a customer journey: before the sale, the sale itself, getting help, paying, struggling to pay, leaving. Almost every item sits across more than one team. Sales incentives live with sales leadership. Credit checks live with risk. Cancellation lives with the contact centre and the retention team. Disconnection lives with collections. The customer experiences all of it as one relationship.
That is where obligations like these tend to fail. Each team can be compliant on its own patch while the customer still falls through the handover between them. Picture a customer in financial difficulty who calls about a bill, is offered a retention deal, and is then disconnected by an automated collections rule has met three teams and no single owner.
Here is what we would do before the standard is made:
- Map the journey from first ad to disconnection, with each team's rules, scripts and systems on the same wall.
- Mark every point where a sales or retention incentive could push against a customer's needs or means.
- Walk the cancellation path as a customer, in every channel, and count the steps and the transfers.
- Trace what happens between a missed payment and a disconnection, and where a person checks for hardship before an automated rule acts.
- Include resellers, retail partners and outsourced contact centres. Customers do not see the contract boundary.
- Read the consultation paper and draft instrument yourself, and consider making a submission before 10 November.
What we do not know yet
This is a draft. The final wording, commencement date and any transition periods will depend on the consultation. The ACMA has said it will meet consumer advocacy groups and industry during the six-week consultation. Treat the draft as the direction of travel, and the journey work above as useful whatever the final detail.