Telecommunications giant Telstra has vowed to review and improve its priority assistance registration and renewal process as part of a court-enforceable undertaking with telco watchdog Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
ACMA’s probe found that Telstra failed to respond to over 260 calls asking about information and registering for priority assistance, as the latter scrambled to fix faulty lines all over the country.
This left customers with life-threatening conditions without phone services for up to three months, ACMA said.
ACMA also found that Telstra failed to “initiate ‘emergency medical request’ procedures” five times to two customers when they asked for it.
They also failed to follow processes for ‘enhanced service reliability’ once, which required them to do testing of a priority assistance customer’s telephone service if two faults are reported by the customer over a three-month period.
ACMA found these deficiencies through documentation that Telstra itself provided. To secure a carrier license, telecommunications companies in Australia are required to provide priority assistance to customers who have a life-threatening medical condition, and once identified, must have systems in place to provide those customers with additional levels of service.
In a media release, ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin said the licence condition aims to help these vulnerable Australians have access to a working phone service and that any faults are fixed quickly.
“Some of these customers were having problems with their Telstra fixed line service at the same time as dealing with significant medical issues,” O’Loughlin said.
“These are some of Telstra’s most vulnerable customers and the telco must have adequate systems in place to make sure these important obligations are always met,” she said.
Under the court-enforceable undertaking, Telstra will implement new systems to address the deficiencies in its existing procedures to ensure customers requiring priority assistance are provided with the required information and can easily register for the service.
Telstra has also increased the monitoring of staff who handle priority assistance communications to ensure the correct steps are followed.
If Telstra fails to comply with the conditions of the enforceable undertaking, the ACMA may consider “commencing federal Ccourt proceedings,” ACMA said in a statement.
Paulo Rizal is a content producer for Comms Room. He writes content around popular media, journalism, social media, and more.
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