NBN rollout rules to stop households being left without telecommunication services

New rules introduced by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) are designed to stop households being left without any access to telecommunications services during their migration to the National Broadband Network.

The new Service Continuity Standard is the latest in a slate of regulatory measures taken by the ACMA.

It seeks to improve end user experience during and after transition to the NBN.

The standard takes effect on 21 September.

Where feasible NBN and telecommunications providers must not disconnect existing fixed-line services unless a new NBN connection is working and if there is a problem during the migration, legacy copper-based services need to be reconnected where possible or an alternative service offered while the problem is resolved.

The ACMA redrafted the standard following consultations with Communications Alliance, industry stakeholders, and consumer groups including the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network.

The revised standard includes the concept of an “NBN backup service” that is not based on the new network nor on the legacy copper network.

There may still be a small number of cases where, despite these new rules, a consumer’s old network service is disconnected before they have a working NBN service. In these cases, the NBN retail CSP has three working days to get the NBN service working properly.

If the NBN retail CSP can’t get it working properly in this period, and they also supplied the old network service to the consumer, they must, in most cases, reconnect the consumer’s old network service within three working days.