Does Customer Service Guarantee (CSG) apply to telecommunications carriers / CSPs?

Customer Service Guarantee (CSG). The Customer Service Guarantee Standard, enforced by the ACMA, sets how quickly a telco must connect or repair a landline telephone service and keep appointments, and the compensation it must pay automatically when it misses those timelines. A new connection is due within 5 working days in urban areas (10,000+ people), 10 in major rural and 15 in minor rural or remote areas, or 20 working days where there is no nearby infrastructure or spare capacity; an existing line must be connected within 2 working days.

Trigger: A customer request to connect a landline service or feature, a reported fault (cannot make or receive calls, repeated drop-outs, severe interference, or features not working), or an appointment made to connect or repair.

Rules Mate runs its applicability engine across 9 business structures and 6 size bands for each of the 35 industries it maps. For 34 of those industries the answer for "Customer Service Guarantee (CSG)" is no. Telecommunications carriers / CSPs is one of the 1 where the answer is different: yes.

The deciding fact for telecommunications carriers / CSPs: Industry: Telecommunications carriers / CSPs.

About the industry: Carriers and carriage service providers under the Telecommunications Act.

Compare a professional services (general) business with 6–19 employees structured as a Pty Ltd company: the obligation does not apply (Requires industry: Telecommunications carriers / CSPs).

Each cell is the engine's outcome for a business in telecommunications carriers / csps with that structure and size, assuming it sells to consumers and small businesses and holds customer contact details. "Check" means the obligation turns on a fact the industry does not settle.

When due

Per the timelines above for each connection, repair or appointment; a shorter time promised by the telco becomes the timeline. After a mass service disruption caused by a natural disaster, notified maintenance or third-party damage, the telco must notify affected customers (or publish a website notice) and tell the ACMA and the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman within 10 days.

Evidence to keep

Connection and fault tickets timestamped against the CSG timeline for the customer's community size; appointment windows and attendance records; automatic compensation calculations and payments; written or recorded oral CSG waivers containing the mandatory disclosures; mass service disruption notices to customers, the ACMA and the TIO; exemption claims.

Maximum penalty

Missed timelines trigger automatic compensation to the customer for each working day of delay, at a higher daily rate from the sixth working day, plus a payment for each missed appointment; business customers receive higher early-day rates than residential and charity customers and can still claim for loss of business. The current amounts are published by the ACMA. The ACMA enforces the Standard against telcos.

Regulator

ACMA

Jurisdiction

Commonwealth (national)

• Comply with Customer Service Guarantee (CSG) for standard phone services: Yes
• Comply with Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code: Yes
• Comply with the Reducing Scam Calls and Scam SMs Industry Code: Yes
• Telco data retention — 2 years (Part 5-1A Telecommunications Act): Yes