The Australian Communications Industry Forum (ACIF) has called for public comment by 22 April on its draft ACIF C513 Customer and Network Fault Management Industry Code, which seeks to expand the areas covered by the original code.
The original code, published in 1999, did not cover areas such as local number portability and mobile number portability. The new code seeks to set minimum standards on these issues, as well as Free Phone and Local Rate Number Portability fault management.
Unlike the previous code, which was only published by ACIF, this code will be registered, forcing relevant telecommunications providers to be bound by the code whether or not they have chosen to adopt it voluntarily.
The draft industry code also includes a 'Special Investigation' procedure, where customers who have problems with a carriage service provider other than their own have access to an escalated fault handling process.
