The National Reliability Framework (NRF) is designed to provide a legal safeguard for consumers by requiring Telstra, as the Primary Universal Service Provider, to take pre-emptive action to prevent the occurrence of multiple faults. It is designed to boost the protection offered by the Customer Service Guarantee, which has faced claims of not protecting rural consumers from repeated faults.
Under the NRF services cannot experience more than three faults in 60 days or more than four faults in 365 days. If Telstra fails to undertake remedial work to prevent this happening it can face fines up to AU$10 million.
However, when Senator Richard Alston announced the NRF on July 16 2002, he didn't expect to be fining Telstra that amount.
"Given that Telstra accepts the obligations and the whole purpose of the exercise and has signed onto this Framework, we don't anticipate we will get to that point," said Alston.
The NRF also gives the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) the power to identify and investigate exchange service areas with poor reliability. The Estens Inquiry into Regional Telecommunications recommended that the ACA identify the worst performing exchange service areas in regional, rural and remote Australia as soon as possible after the NRF commenced. Telstra should then be required to provide the Government with a strategy for improving the performance of those areas, including specific timeframes and funding.
