{"id":"F2025L01533","name":"Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages Industry Standard Amendment) Direction 2025","slug":"telecommunications-customer-communications-for-outages-industry-standard-amendment-direction-2025","collection":"legislative_instrument","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":null,"makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":443075,"registerId":"F2025L01533-fast-fetch-1775957979660","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-12","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages Industry Standard Amendment) Direction 2025","content":"---\nmeta-content-style-type: text/css\nmeta-content-type: application/xhtml+xml; charset=utf-8\n---\n\n?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\" standalone=\"no\"?>\n\n![Commonwealth Coat of Arms of Australia](image.001.jpeg)\n\n \n\nTelecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages Industry Standard Amendment) Direction 2025\n\nI, Anika Wells, Minister for Communications, make the following direction.\n\nDated    8 December 2025\n\nAnika Wells\n\nMinister for Communications\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nContents\n\n1  Name\n\n2  Commencement\n\n3  Authority\n\n4  Definitions\n\n5  Direction to the ACMA\n\n6  Additional objectives and content of the standard\n\n \n\n1  Name\n\n  This instrument is the Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages Industry Standard Amendment) Direction 2025.\n\n2  Commencement\n\n  This instrument commences the day after this instrument is registered.\n\n3  Authority\n\n  This instrument is made under subsection 125AA(4) of the Telecommunications Act 1997.\n\n4  Definitions\n\nNote: A number of expressions used in this instrument are defined in section 7 of the Act, including the following:\n\n(a) ACMA;\n\n(b) carrier;\n\n(c) carriage service;\n\n(d) carriage service provider;\n\n(e) emergency call service.\n\n  In this instrument:\n\n2024 standard means the Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages) Industry Standard 2024.\n\nAct means the Telecommunications Act 1997.\n\nCustodian has the same meaning as in the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999.\n\nemergency service organisation has the same meaning as in section 147 of the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999.\n\noutage means a major outage or significant local outage as defined in the 2024 standard.\n\noutage register: see paragraph 6(1)(a).\n\nrelevant carriage service has the same meaning as in the 2024 standard.\n\n5  Direction to the ACMA\n\n (1) I direct the ACMA to amend the 2024 standard so that it gives effect to the objectives, and includes the content, set out in section 6.\n\n (2) The amendments required by subsection (1) are to:\n\n (a) be made and commence in full no later than 31 March 2026; and\n\n (b) require the outage registers to be operational by 30 June 2026.\n\n (3) The amendments required by subsection (1) may:\n\n (a) deal with matters differently for different classes of carriers or carriage service providers; and\n\n (b) exempt certain classes of carriers or carriage service providers from particular requirements.\n\n (4) I direct that the ACMA may further amend the 2024 standard as it considers necessary from time to time, provided that the standards in force under subsection 125AA(1) of the Act continue to comply with any directions in force under subsection 125AA(4) of the Act.\n\n (5)  In amending the 2024 standard as required by subsection (1), the ACMA may define any terms that it considers appropriate or necessary, including terms used in this instrument but not defined in section 4.\n\n (6) In amending the 2024 standard as required by subsection (1), the ACMA must have regard to other obligations and processes relating to the emergency call service.\n\n6  Additional objectives and content of the standard\n\nAdditional objectives of the standard\n\n (1) The amendments to the 2024 standard required by subsection 5(1) are to give effect to the following additional objectives, as they relate to the telecommunications activities of carriers, and as appropriate, carriage service providers:\n\n (a) that a register is caused, by each carrier, to be established and published on a publicly available website (an outage register) that includes information about outages that have occurred, or have continued, on or after 31 March 2026;\n\n (b) that the outage register is maintained to ensure information is included in the outage register about an outage as soon as practicable, and is kept up-to-date and accurate;\n\n (c) that information remains in the outage register for a reasonable period of time;\n\n (d) that, to the extent technically practicable and appropriate, the objectives in paragraphs (1)(a) to (c) are given effect to in a manner that reflects the following criteria:\n\n1.           standardised presentation of outage information;\n2.           presentation of information in a plain English and accessible format, including compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 and any replacement guidelines or other best practice regarding accessibility;\n3.           publication in a manner that allows the information to be extracted by external entities (such as the Custodian or emergency service organisations) for analytical purposes;\n4.           presentation of accurate and up-to-date information about outages to the public;\n\n\n (e) that each carriage service provider who is not a carrier but who supplies a relevant carriage service ensures that, at all times on and after 30 June 2026, there is displayed on its publicly available website a link to the outage register published by the carrier for their service.\n\nNote: The objectives mentioned in this subsection are to be additional to, and not in substitution for, the objectives referred to in subsection 6(1) of the Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages Industry Standards) Direction 2024.\n\nAdditional content of the standard\n\n (2) The 2024 standard, as amended to give effect to the objectives in subsection 6(1), must include a requirement for the outage register to display, at a minimum, the following information about each outage, insofar as it is known by the carrier or carriage service provider:\n\n (a) the date the outage commenced;\n\n (b) the duration of the outage;\n\n (c) the geographical areas impacted or likely to be impacted by the outage; \n\n (d) to the extent technically practicable and appropriate, the types and respective numbers of carriage services impacted by the outage;\n\n (e) to the extent technically practicable and appropriate, the number of premises impacted by the outage;\n\n (f) if appropriate, the carrier or carriage service provider responsible for resolving the outage.\n\nNote: The content mentioned in this subsection is to be additional to, and not in substitution for, the content referred to in subsection 6(2) of the Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages Industry Standards) Direction 2024.\n","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"flash_summary_failed":{"failed":true,"reason":"A positive credit balance is required for all requests, including BYOK, so fallback providers remain available. Add credits at https://vercel.com/d?to=%2F%5Bteam%5D%2F%7E%2Fai%3Fmodal%3Dtop-up to continue.","source":"analysis-cron"},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":3,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This direction stays tightly within its original purpose. It builds incrementally on the existing Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages) Industry Standard 2024 by adding specific requirements for public outage registers. The scope remains focused on consumer communication during outages — it does not expand into unrelated areas like pricing, network infrastructure standards, or privacy regulation. The direction explicitly states its objectives are 'additional to, and not in substitution for' the existing 2024 standard, confirming this is an evolutionary expansion rather than scope creep."},"complexity_factors":["Short instrument (6 sections, approximately 2 pages)","Minimal defined terms (only 6 definitions in section 4, plus references to existing legislation)","Clear hierarchical structure with numbered paragraphs and subparagraphs","No nested conditional logic or exceptions to exceptions","Cross-references limited to the parent Act (Telecommunications Act 1997), the 2024 standard being amended, and one other related Act","Flexible drafting allowing ACMA discretion on implementation details (e.g., 'as it considers appropriate', 'to the extent technically practicable') rather than prescriptive technical requirements"],"plain_english_summary":"This ministerial direction tells the communications regulator to require major phone and internet network owners to publish public outage registers showing where and when services fail, and for smaller providers to link to those registers. The aim is standardized, plain-English, machine-readable outage data so customers, emergency services and regulators get consistent, accessible information.\n\nThe rules must be finalised by 31 March 2026 and the registers live by 30 June 2026."},"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":6,"scope_assessment":{"changed":true,"description":"This instrument expands the scope of the 2024 standard by adding mandatory, public outage registers (with specified minimum data fields), accessibility and extractability requirements, explicit timelines for implementation and operationalisation, and an obligation on non‑carrier carriage service providers to link to carrier registers. It also grants ACMA powers to tailor requirements, exempt classes and define necessary terms, and requires regard to emergency call obligations (s5(1)–(6); s6(1)–(2))."},"complexity_factors":["Amendment of an existing 2024 industry standard rather than standalone rules requires cross‑referencing and alignment with prior provisions.","Multiple hard deadlines for amendments and operational rollout (s5(2)), creating tight implementation timing.","ACMA discretion to treat different classes differently and to exempt classes increases regulatory tailoring and administrative complexity (s5(3)).","Technical practicability tests for fields (e.g. service types, premises counts) add conditional compliance obligations (s6(2)(d)–(e)).","Accessibility and data‑extraction requirements (WCAG 2.2, extractable format) require specific technical and UX work by carriers (s6(1)(d)3–4).","Interaction with other statutory obligations, notably emergency call service processes and definitions across Acts, requires coordination (s5(6)).","Requirement to keep information up‑to‑date, accurate and retained for a ‘reasonable period’ imposes ongoing operational and recordkeeping burdens (s6(1)(b)–(c)).","Definitions and terms are partly left for ACMA to define, producing potential variability and legal interpretation work (s5(5)).","Public publication and external extractability create data governance, privacy and security considerations for carriers."],"plain_english_summary":"This direction tells the ACMA to amend the 2024 industry standard so each carrier must publish and maintain a public ‘outage register’ for major or significant local outages (from 31 March 2026) and requires non‑carrier carriage service providers to link to their carrier’s register (from 30 June 2026). Carriers pay the operational and compliance costs of creating, updating and presenting registers to accessibility and data‑extraction standards; the ACMA can tailor, exempt classes and define terms (s5, s6)."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/telecommunications-customer-communications-for-outages-industry-standard-amendment-direction-2025","history":"/api/acts/telecommunications-customer-communications-for-outages-industry-standard-amendment-direction-2025/history","analysis":"/api/acts/telecommunications-customer-communications-for-outages-industry-standard-amendment-direction-2025/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/telecommunications-customer-communications-for-outages-industry-standard-amendment-direction-2025/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/telecommunications-customer-communications-for-outages-industry-standard-amendment-direction-2025/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/telecommunications-customer-communications-for-outages-industry-standard-amendment-direction-2025/documents"}}