Telecommunications contract and grant registers

Universal Service Obligation—standard telephone service (Module B)

Contract value: $253 million per annum (GST inclusive).

Telstra has a contractual obligation to supply the Standard Telephone Service (STS) so that voice services are reasonably accessible to all people in Australia on an equitable basis. This includes an offer to a customer to purchase or hire a handset. Telstra receives funding to operate and maintain its existing copper network to provide the STS in areas where the NBN fibre fixed line network will not be deployed. 

Universal Service Obligation—payphones (Module C)

Contract value: $44 million per annum (GST inclusive).

Telstra has a contractual obligation to supply, install and maintain public payphones and supply payphone carriage services so that payphones are reasonably accessible to all people in Australia on an equitable basis.

Voice only Customer Migration (Module D)

Contract Value: A maximum amount of $165 million (GST inclusive) over 10 years (commenced on 1 July 2012).

During the fibre rollout, the Department reimburses Telstra for the costs it incurs in providing assistance to eligible voice-only customers to enable those customers to migrate their voice telephone service to the NBN fixed line network.

Emergency Call Service (Module E)

Current contract value: Up to $22 million per annum (GST inclusive).

Telstra has a contractual obligation to supply the Emergency Call Service in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements for up to 20 years, subject to a tender process that commenced in October 2016. Telstra or any future emergency call provider will remain regulated.

In addition to annual payment for ongoing supply of the Emergency Call Service, the Department will also meet the reasonable costs of any major upgrades to Telstra's Emergency Call Service platforms and systems.

Migration of public interest services (Module F)

Telstra may notify the Department that a technological solution does not exist for the carriage of public interest services (defined as 'traffic light' and 'public alarm' services) over fibre. If the Department is reasonably satisfied that a solution does not exist, the Department will either request Telstra or a third party for proposals to develop the solution. Any solution that is funded by the Department will be owned by the Department (unless agreed otherwise) and made available to all service providers on an equivalent basis.

Contract value: $1.785 million (GST inclusive) for 2015-16.

Extended Zones (EZ) are geographical areas outside of Telstra's standard local call charging zones, predominantly located in remote Australia. Made under the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999, the Agreement provides for untimed local calls both within EZ and from within an extended zone to an adjacent extended zone. It also provides for untimed local calls from within an extended zone to that extended zone’s designated community service town. The Agreement includes calls made from a standard telephone service, payphones and dial-up internet calls.

The Agreement commenced on 1 July 2012 and is subject to annual review and extension. The current Agreement expires on 30 June 2016.

Estimate of total amount: $18 million per annum (GST inclusive) from the commencement of service delivery from 1 July 2013.

Description

The relay service provider must provide comparable access for users to an STS, as defined in the Telecommunications Consumer Protection and Service Standards Act 1999. Comparable access must be provided through any of the following services, for which the provider is required to do everything within its reasonable control and capability to ensure it is operated 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

The Relay Services to be delivered by the Service Contractor are:

Note: The Commonwealth may, in its sole discretion, extend the term of this contract for a further period of up to three years.

1. Teletypewriter (TTY) service to be available 24 hours per day, every day of the year. This includes: 'type and read', 'speak and read' (voice carryover) and 'type and listen' (hearing carryover)
2. One-way internet relay service, which must be available 24 hours per day, every day of the year, to enable a user to communicate via the Internet while a relay officer uses voice or text to communicate with the other party.
3. Two-way internet relay service, which must be available 24 hours per day, every day of the year, to allow users to communicate via the Internet to make and receive calls while a relay officer uses voice or text to communicate with the other party [commencement date to be agreed]
4. Delivery of 'speak and listen' (or speech to speech) services which must be available 24 hours per day, every day of the year.
5. Development and delivery of an application available on mobile devices which provides 24 hours per day, every day of the year access to Relay Core Services and some of the Relay Additional Services. [commencement date to be agreed]
6. The maintenance of processes, systems and software to ensure that calls requesting 106 and 000 be handled by the Service Contractor with the highest priority [with the exception of calls to 000 through video relay services].
7. Video Relay Services in all Australian States and Territories, to allow people for whom Auslan is their preferred first language to make and receive calls, and be available from 7:00AM to 6:00PM Australian Eastern Standard Time [Monday – Friday with the exception of national public holidays].
8. SMS Relay Service to be available to users 24 hours per day, every day of the year.

Estimate of total amount: $4 million (GST inclusive) per annum from the commencement of service delivery on 1 July 2013

Description

The development and delivery of a national Outreach Service to support the National Relay Service, at no charge to the user, with the following key components:

Note: The Commonwealth may, in its sole discretion, extend the term of this contract for a further period of up to three years.

1. promotion and awareness raising of the NRS to users, potential users and the broader Australian community
2. provision of training (including training materials) on how to make and receive calls using the NRS in all Australian states
3. consumer liaison, including handling enquiries, as well as collecting and receiving feedback and complaints from consumers and potential consumers of both the Relay Services and Outreach Services, which must be available from 8:00AM to 6:00PM Australian Eastern Standard Time;
4. stakeholder engagement and management of NRS research to inform continuous improvement of the NRS
5. flexibility and ability to accommodate changing priorities across and within the key components in A to D above, and to reflect any potential expansion in scope or technologies offered as part of the NRS.