Summary

  • ACMA's draft section 44 would put location-specific coverage information in front of assisted mobile buyers; online buyers would get a prominent map link and a prompt to check it.
  • Draft section 46 would waive an early-exit fee when a buyer asks within 20 business days because coverage misses reasonable expectations, while preserving a choice over device payments or return.

A coverage map is a sales instrument until the customer tries the service. Then it becomes evidence. In the draft Telecommunications (Consumer Protections) Industry Standard, ACMA has connected those two moments: what the provider showed before purchase and what the buyer can do when the phone will not work where it was meant to work.

Section 44 gives the shop counter and the online checkout different jobs. In an assisted sale, the provider must offer to check the places the buyer intends to use the service, provide a coverage summary and give access to the relevant parts of the map. The summary must carry the coverage label, its description, indicative experience and the map's assumptions and limits. For an unassisted sale, the provider must show a prominent direct link and prompt the buyer to consult the map. A buried coverage page would not meet the proposed online choreography.

The sting sits in section 46. A customer who requests termination within 20 business days of purchase because coverage falls short of reasonable expectations would leave without an early-exit fee. If a phone came with the plan, the customer could keep paying the remaining device price on the original schedule or return the device in good working order for a full refund. Packaging is expressly excluded from the return condition. That choice keeps the remedy from turning into a demand for immediate payment of the whole handset balance.

ACMA did not make the window limitless. A second request within six months lets the provider assess good faith and ask for reasonable evidence of experienced coverage, taking account of the information available before sale. If the request is in good faith, the remedy still applies. The draft's section 49 gives a provider three business days to implement an agreed remedy, subject to a different agreement or unfinished customer action.

The consultation closes on 10 November. The draft leaves its commencement date blank. What exists now is a proposal with a measurable sales handoff and exit procedure, not an enacted right or a count of customers who have used it.