Review of payphone rules

The Universal Service Guarantee (USG) provides Australians with reasonable access to telephone, payphone and broadband services.

The overarching payphone obligation is in Part 2 of the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999. Five 'legislative instruments' set out further detailed rules about payphone location, installation, removal, performance, consultation and complaint handling.

These instruments are set to end, or 'sunset', on 1 April 2022.

We're seeking your views on whether the rules in these instruments are needed in the future, and if so, what they should deal with and how.

The consultation is not about the future of payphones, which are part of the USG and required under law. Rather, the process is about the detailed rules governing their provision.

A consultation paper is available to help inform your submission.

Relevant documentation

The regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), separately consulted on its record-keeping rules for payphone performance with a deadline for submissions of 31 January 2022.

Following this consultation, the Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts, the Hon Paul Fletcher MP, made the Telecommunications (Payphones) Determination 2022 which commenced from 1 April 2022.

Other information on payphone regulatory requirements and the Universal Service Obligation for telephony is available on the Universal Service Obligation webpage. Information on the broader Universal Service Guarantee can be found on the Universal Service Guarantee for telecommunications webpage.