The Consumer Safeguards Review (the Review) is examining what consumer safeguards are required for a changing communications environment, with a focus on the post-2020 environment—one in which the large scale roll-out of the National Broadband Network (NBN) will be complete and the vast majority of premises will have migrated to an NBN service.

Part A of the Review has considered complaints handling and redress and Part B has considered service reliability, including existing obligations for service connection and fault repair.

This Part C paper is set out in four parts:

1. Current legislative and regulatory framework
2. Key issues
3. What changes are required?
4. Proposals for reform

Through these four parts, the paper:

• Considers what choice and fairness looks like in a changing communications environment and how they can best be delivered (including the role of self-regulation and direct regulation).
• Tests the ongoing relevance of some specific legacy obligations, particularly those that apply to legacy voice services, and whether these could be phased-out, as the majority of fixed line services move to the NBN.
• Briefly canvases the importance of digital inclusion and productivity to choice and fairness, and asks whether the requirement on Telstra to promote low income measures is a necessary and effective way of supporting the connectivity of Australians on low incomes.