New telco laws bring bigger penalties, a provider register and a promise of outdoor mobile coverage almost everywhere

Phone and internet providers that break consumer protection rules face much larger penalties under new laws the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) welcomed on 15 October 2026. A second set of changes sets up an obligation for mobile carriers to provide basic outdoor voice and SMS coverage across almost all of Australia.

The ACMA’s announcement covers two bills: the Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025 and the bill that sets up the Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation. Neither appeared on the Federal Register of Legislation as an Act when we checked on 15 October, and the ACMA’s release doesn’t give start dates for the changes.

Bigger penalties and directly enforceable codes

According to the ACMA, the consumer safeguards bill “significantly increases maximum civil penalties” for corporate breaches of industry codes, industry standards and service provider determinations, and strengthens the infringement notice framework.

When the bill was first introduced in February 2025, the Minister for Communications said the maximum general penalty for breaching industry codes and standards would rise “from $250,000 to approximately $10 million”. Penalties could also be based on the benefit a provider gained from the breach or its turnover, allowing penalties above $10 million in some cases. The government described it as a 40-fold increase. The ACMA’s release doesn’t give final figures, and we haven’t confirmed whether amendments during passage changed them.

Registered industry codes will also become directly enforceable. That means the ACMA will be able to act on a breach without first directing the provider to comply. For a separate set of proposed telco rules, see our story on the ACMA’s proposed small business protections.

A register of telco providers

The bill also creates a telco registration scheme. The ACMA says it will, “as a last resort”, let the regulator stop providers with serious compliance failures from staying in the market. When the bill was introduced, the government said the scheme would increase visibility of providers, “especially telecommunications retailers”, and let the ACMA stop a provider operating if it posed “unacceptable risk to consumers” or had caused significant consumer harm.

The ACMA says it will publish more information about how the scheme will work before it starts. It hasn’t announced a start date or which providers must register.

Outdoor mobile coverage almost everywhere

The second law sets up the Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation. The ACMA says it “provides a pathway for access to mobile voice and SMS coverage to be reasonably available outdoors across all of Australia”.

The obligation applies to the three national mobile carriers. The government’s announcement of the bill said Telstra, Optus and TPG would have to provide access to SMS and voice coverage “almost everywhere you can see the sky”, and said the changes are expected to help add up to 5 million square kilometres of basic outdoor coverage. Coverage is expected to come from a mix of existing towers and low Earth orbit satellites that connect directly to phones, known as direct-to-device technology.

Timing is not fixed. The Department of Infrastructure’s page on the reforms gives a start date of 1 December 2027, and the ministers’ release said it “will start by 1 December 2027 subject to market developments”. The government’s response to the Senate committee inquiry says the Minister can delay that default day by 12 months, up to three times.

It also won’t mean coverage for every phone. The government says it intends to make an instrument setting out when it isn’t reasonable for a carrier to provide coverage. The Department’s submission to the inquiry listed circumstances including technical limitations, temporary outages and “the capability of handsets and services available from the end-user’s chosen plan”. In other words, on our reading, someone whose phone or plan doesn’t support direct-to-device services may not benefit. The government also plans public consultation before the start date on industry readiness and the impact on consumers.

What it means now

For households and businesses, nothing changes on your bill or coverage map today. The higher penalties are aimed at providers, and their main effect for customers should be a regulator that can act faster when a telco breaks the rules. The outdoor coverage obligation is more than a year away, and will depend on the phone and plan you have when it starts.

Checklist

• Note the 1 December 2027 default date for outdoor coverage. The Minister can delay it by 12 months, up to three times.
• Ask your carrier whether your phone and plan support direct-to-device satellite services. Coverage under the outdoor mobile obligation depends partly on the handset and plan.
• Don’t rely on satellite coverage for remote work or travel yet. The obligation hasn’t started, so plan for gaps in mobile coverage as you do now.
• Read the ACMA’s guidance on the telco registration scheme when it is published. The ACMA says it will explain how the scheme works before it starts.