Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) (Characteristics for Standard Telephone Service) Regulation 20121
Select Legislative Instrument 2012 No. 99
I, QUENTIN BRYCE, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, make the following regulation under the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999.
Dated 14 June 2012
QUENTIN BRYCE
Governor-General
By Her Excellency’s Command
STEPHEN CONROY
Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
Contents
Part 1                          Preliminary
                        1      Name of regulation                                                          3
                        2      Commencement                                                              3
                        3      Definitions                                                                      3
Part 2                          Designated characteristics
                        4      Designated characteristics for purposes of section 349 of Telecommunications Act 1997      4
                        5      Designated characteristic—line connected by physical contact         4
                        6      Reasonable belief in relation to rollout                              7
                        7      Designated characteristic—optical fibre networks             7
 
 
Part 1                 Preliminary
  
1              Name of regulation
                This regulation is the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) (Characteristics for Standard Telephone Service) Regulation 2012.
2              Commencement
                This regulation commences on the day after it is registered.
3              Definitions
         (1)   In this regulation:
Act means the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999.
install has a meaning affected by section 372X of the Telecommunications Act 1997.
         (2)   For this regulation, a facility for use in connection with a line is installed in proximity to a building unit only if the facility enables the line to be readily connected to the building unit.
Part 2                 Designated characteristics
  
4              Designated characteristics for purposes of section 349 of Telecommunications Act 1997
                This Part declares designated characteristics for paragraphs 6 (1) (e) and (f) of the Act, for the purposes of a reference to a standard telephone service in section 349 of the Telecommunications Act 1997.
Note   Section 7 of the Telecommunications Act 1997 provides that standard telephone service in that Act has the meaning given by section 6 of the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999.
5              Designated characteristic—line connected by physical contact         
         (1)   For a carriage service provided for the purpose of voice telephony, or for the purpose of an equivalent form of communication, to an end‑user in a prescribed building unit, a designated characteristic is that the service is supplied using a line connected by physical contact to the building unit.
         (2)   For subsection (1), a building unit is a prescribed building unit if it has the attributes set out in subsection (3), (4), (5) or (7).
First type of prescribed building unit
         (3)   For subsection (2), the attributes are:
                (a)    the building unit was not occupied before 1 January 2011; and
               (b)    an end-user in the building unit requests that a carriage service be supplied to the building unit; and
                (c)    when the end-user requests the carriage service, there is no copper‑based or optical fibre‑based telecommunications network which it is practicable to physically connect to the building unit; and
               (d)    the carrier or carriage service provider that provides, or will provide, the carriage service to the building unit has a reasonable belief when the end-user requests the carriage service that the building unit is in an area in which rollout of a copper-based or optical fibre‑based telecommunications network will commence within 12 months after the end-user’s request.
Second type of prescribed building unit
         (4)   For subsection (2), the attributes are:
                (a)    construction of the building unit was completed on or after 1 January 2011; and
               (b)    the building unit was not occupied before 1 January 2011; and
                (c)    an end-user in the building unit requests that a carriage service be supplied to the building unit; and
               (d)    when the end-user requests the carriage service, there is no optical fibre‑based telecommunications network which it is practicable to physically connect to the building unit; and
                (e)    the carrier or carriage service provider that provides, or will provide, the carriage service to the building unit has a reasonable belief when the end-user requests the carriage service that the building unit is in an area in which rollout of an optical fibre‑based telecommunications network will commence within 12 months after the end-user’s request.
Third type of prescribed building unit
         (5)   For subsection (2), the attributes are:
                (a)    construction of the building unit was completed on or after 1 January 2011; and
               (b)    the building unit was not occupied before 1 January 2011; and
                (c)    an end-user in the building unit requests that a carriage service be supplied to the building unit; and
               (d)    when the end-user requests the carriage service, there is no copper‑based or optical fibre‑based telecommunications network which it is practicable to physically connect to the building unit; and
                (e)    if the circumstance in subsection (6) exists—when the end-user requests the carriage service, the facility mentioned in that subsection has not been installed in proximity to the building unit; and
                (f)    if the circumstance in subsection (6) does not exist—when the end-user requests the carriage service, no above ground fixed-line facility has been installed in proximity to the building unit.
         (6)   For paragraphs (5) (e) and (f), the circumstance is that, at any time after the commencement of civil works associated with the building unit, it was reasonably practicable (having regard to the nature and composition of land and the cost), technically feasible and permitted by law to install an underground fixed‑line facility that is:
                (a)    in proximity to the building unit; and
               (b)    suitable for connection of a copper-based or optical fibre‑based telecommunications network.
Fourth type of prescribed building unit
         (7)   For subsection (2), the attribute is that there is a telecommunications network which is physically connected to the building unit, or which it is practicable to physically connect to the building unit, that:
                (a)    is an open access network; and
               (b)    is owned by a carrier other than an NBN corporation or Telstra; and
                (c)    is used by a carriage service provider other than Telstra to offer carriage services to retail customers for the purpose of voice telephony or for the purpose of an equivalent form of communication.
6              Reasonable belief in relation to rollout
         (1)   For subsections 5 (3) and (4), a carrier or carriage service provider is taken to have a reasonable belief that rollout of a particular type of telecommunications network will commence in an area within the following 12 months if:
                (a)    the area is identified in information published by any carrier or carriage service provider as an area in which the type of telecommunications network is being rolled out or will begin to be rolled out within the following 12 months; or
               (b)    any carrier or carriage service provider has entered into a legally enforceable agreement for the type of telecommunications network to begin to be rolled out in the area within the following 12 months.
         (2)   Subsection (1) does not limit the circumstances in which a carrier or carriage service provider could form a reasonable belief that rollout of a telecommunications network will commence within the following 12 months.
7              Designated characteristic—optical fibre networks
         (1)   For a carriage service provided for the purpose of voice telephony, or for the purpose of an equivalent form of communication, using an optical fibre line to connect to the premises of end-users, a designated characteristic is that the telecommunications network used to provide the service is owned by a carrier that:
                (a)    supplies carriage services to retail customers using the network; or
               (b)    is in a position to exercise control of a company that supplies carriage services to retail customers using the network.
         (2)   In this section, a carriage service is not supplied to retail customers if:
                (a)    it is a carriage service to which section 9 of the National Broadband Network Companies Act 2011 does not apply because of sections 10 to 16 of that Act; or
               (b)    it is a carriage service to which subsection 143 (2) of the Telecommunications Act 1997 does not apply because of sections 144 to 151 of that Act.
         (3)   For paragraph (1) (b), a person is in a position to exercise control of a company if the person satisfies the relevant requirements in Schedule 1 to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992.
         (4)   However:
                (a)    the definition of associate in subsection 6 (1) of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 does not apply; and
               (b)    the definition of associate in subsection 152 (1) of the Telecommunications Act 1997 applies; and
                (c)    subsection 152 (2) of the Telecommunications Act 1997 does not apply to modify the definition.
         (5)   This section expires 3 years after the day this section commences as if it had been repealed by another legislative instrument.
Note
1.       All legislative instruments and compilations are registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments kept under the Legislative Instruments Act 2003. See www.comlaw.gov.au.