The ACMA has recently approved deregistration of the 2006 Call Charging and Billing Accuracy (Billing Accuracy) industry code, given that the billing accuracy provisions under the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code are much better suited to safeguarding telco customers in the contemporary environment.
In making its decision, the ACMA noted that the Billing Accuracy code:
- applied only to legacy networks
- was entirely operational in nature
- was costly for industry to administer, and
- that providers had largely moved away from the circuit switched networks for which it was developed.
The code looked at error margins for billing by analysing bulk call testing, but did not provide protections for individual customers or individually billed services.
Since the code was registered in 2006, there have been no instances of the ACMA taking enforcement action against a telco in relation to obligations under the code.
The code was deregistered on 6 April 2023.
