Are You Ready for 2026’s Telecom Compliance Challenges? Atrium Helps You Stay Ahead

TL;DR (for business & enterprise readers)

• You’re not the regulated telco — but you benefit from new and proposed ACMA rules.
• Outage communications rules (in force) mean clearer, faster, and more consistent updates from your provider during major outages. ACMA
• Complaints handling upgrades (2025) push telcos to accept and prioritise outage complaints, shorten resolution times, and make escalation easier. ACMA+1
• Bigger penalties & direct enforcement (proposed) raise the stakes for providers; this strengthens your negotiating position on SLAs and credits. Ministers for Infrastructure and Transport+2Bird & Bird+2
• Anti-scam measures (sender ID work & blocking codes) help protect your staff and customers from spoofed SMS. ACMA+1

Atrium turns those regulatory shifts into practical leverage—audit trails, outage-to-credit workflows, and vendor scorecards—so you actually see the benefits.

What’s changing—and how it helps you

1) Outage communications you can rely on

ACMA’s Customer Communications for Outages standard (commenced 30 June 2025) requires providers to send timely, useful info during major or significant local outages—scale, location, what’s impacted, updates as things change, and a “fixed” notice. You get faster clarity for incident management and stakeholder comms. ACMA

2) Complaints handling that’s easier to use and escalate

Following the Optus 2023 outage review, ACMA directed upgrades to the Complaints Handling Standard so outage contacts are treated as complaints, prioritised appropriately, and supported by simpler channels, better visibility of the process, and shorter timeframes. The latest instrument version reflects these changes (Aug 2025). This makes service credits and remedies easier to pursue. ACMA+1

3) Bigger penalties, direct enforcement (on the way)

The Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025 (re-introduced Aug 2025) would:

• Make industry codes directly enforceable by ACMA;
• Increase penalty ceilings (up to ~A$10m, 3× benefit, or 30% of adjusted turnover, depending on the case);
• Register all CSPs with ACMA for better oversight.
  Net effect: more accountability for your providers—and stronger leverage for you at contract and governance time. (Bill not yet law at time of writing.) ACCAN+2Australian Parliament House+2

4) Scam-SMS protections tightening

ACMA’s scam-blocking code has already stopped vast volumes of calls/SMS, and work is underway toward a mandatory SMS sender ID register (protecting brand names from spoofing). That reduces smishing risk to your employees and customers when your brand communicates via SMS. ACMA+1

5) Real-world enforcement momentum

After the 2023 national outage, Optus paid A$12m for breaches of emergency call rules—evidence that regulators will act and that serious outages have consequences. (Further investigations continue following new 2025 incidents.) ACMA+2The Guardian+2

How to turn these changes into business outcomes

Use this 7-point playbook in contracts, governance, and incident response:

1. Bake the ACMA outage-comms standard into your SLAs
   Reference the 2025 outage-comms rules in your contracts and supplier scorecards. Require specific notification channels (email/SMS/portal), update cadence, and “fixed” confirmations tied to service-credit triggers. ACMA
2. Make outage contacts “complaints” by design
   Ensure your internal playbook creates a formal complaint for any material outage, capturing timestamps, impact, and business loss—so it’s covered by the Complaints Handling Standard and easier to escalate or credit. ACMA
3. Pre-agree credit/compensation logic
   Negotiate a matrix linking outage category + duration + user impact → automatic credits. Use the new enforcement climate as justification for firmer terms. Bird & Bird+1
4. Protect your brand in SMS
   Prepare to register your sender IDs (when the scheme launches) and align with your provider’s anti-scam controls. Reduce spoofing against staff and customers. ACMA
5. Keep an IPND/emergency-contact hygiene checklist
   If you manage corporate numbers/records with your provider, insist on accurate data processes to support emergency services and outage handling. (Enforcement history shows regulators take this seriously.) ACMA
6. Create an “Outage→Credit” evidence trail
   Auto-capture provider notices, incident start/stop, user impact, and comms logs—so finance can reconcile credits and legal can escalate if needed.
7. Report monthly to the board/CIO
   Use provider KPIs tied to the standards: notification timeliness, complaint closure times, and any regulatory notices. Scorecards change behaviour.

How Atrium makes it easy

• Outage & Incident Hub – Ingests telco outage messages, timestamps updates, and maps events to your services/users; pushes credit claims when thresholds are met.
• Complaints & Escalation Workflow – Turns outage contacts into tracked complaints with SLAs, TIO-ready data (for SMB accounts), and an audit trail for enterprise governance. ACMA
• Vendor Scorecards – Benchmarks providers against ACMA-aligned metrics (notification latency, closure time, repeat incidents).
• Audit Pack – One-click export of incidents, credits, and complaint artefacts for internal audit or executive review.
• Independent Advice – VoicePlus isn’t tied to a carrier; we negotiate hard on your behalf with data to back it up.

FAQs 

Are these rules aimed at telcos or at us?

They primarily target telcos — but they benefit you. Use them to secure better SLAs, faster outage comms, and smoother complaints handling. ACMA+1

Will penalties really get bigger in 2026?

A Bill before Parliament would significantly increase penalties and allow direct enforcement of industry codes. Treat it as imminent leverage in negotiations, but note it’s not yet enacted. ACCAN+1

What should we do right now?

Reference the 2025 outage-comms standard in your contracts, tighten your complaint/escalation playbook, and implement an outage→credit workflow. Atrium can automate the lot. ACMA+1