Telecommunications giant Telstra has been directed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to arrange for an independent audit of compliance with its ‘priority assistance’ obligations for customers with life-threatening medical conditions.
ACMA said Telstra must also implement a range of systems, processes and reporting to assure the future reliability and effectiveness of its priority assistance obligations.
Acting Chair of ACMA, Creina Chapman said the remedial direction resulted from an investigation into Telstra following two incidents in 2017, where customers with serious, chronic health conditions were unable to use their Telstra landline service.
“Neither customer was registered for priority assistance, but both made plain their serious health conditions and their need for a working telephone service,” Ms Chapman said.
“In both cases, the customers passed away.
“Following these events, our initial focus is to address the underlying issue, namely the robustness of the system.”
She said that while it was not clear that any action by Telstra would have changed the outcomes, priority assistance was critical to ensure that customers with life-threatening conditions were identified and provided with swift assistance and fault rectification.
“In the cases investigated by the ACMA, Telstra did not provide information about priority assistance on eight occasions to customers who enquired and did not implement the emergency medical request procedures specified in its priority assistance policy on nine occasions during enquiries made about the two services,” Ms Chapman said.
“ACMA is deeply concerned with Telstra’s failure to comply with its priority assistance obligations.”
Telstra is the only telco subject to a licence condition requiring it to offer customers priority assistance.
