Commonwealth Numbered Acts

TELECOMMUNICATIONS (CONSUMER PROTECTION AND SERVICE STANDARDS) ACT 1999 - SECT 9

(a) all people in Australia, wherever they reside or carry on business, should have reasonable access, on an equitable basis, to:

(i) standard telephone services; and

(ii) payphones; and

(iii) prescribed carriage services; and

(iv) digital data services;

(b) the universal service obligation described in section 19 should be fulfilled as efficiently and economically as practicable;

(ba) the digital data service obligation described in section 19A should be fulfilled as efficiently and economically as practicable;

(c) the losses that result from supplying loss-making services in the course of fulfilling the universal service obligation should be shared among carriers;

(d) information on the basis of which, and the methods by which, those losses and those carriers' respective shares in those losses are to be determined should be open to scrutiny by:

(i) those carriers; and

(ii) the public;

to the greatest extent possible without undue damage to a carrier's interests being caused by the disclosure of confidential commercial information;

(e) certain costs associated with fulfilling the digital data service obligation should be shared among carriers.