The Federal Treasury recently released an early analysis expecting that a proposed extension of the Consumer Data Right to cover telecommunications will cost large telcos around $4.3m. This cost would cover the expenses in setting up the appropriate systems for data sharing. This also means that small telcos need to invest an estimated $340k in build costs and $160k in running costs.

Yesterday, the Treasury formally advanced on its proposal in extending the Consumer Data Right to the industry. This is in the wake of a sectoral assessment conducted earlier this year. The proposal for a telco CDR would see the burden largely fall on retailers in the sector rather than wholesale-only network operators such as NBN Co.

Senator Jane Hume, the digital economy minister, said that “This report identifies that designating the telecommunications sector would expand the CDR framework to a key sector of the Australian economy, allowing consumers to make better choices and facilitating opportunities for cross-sectoral innovation.”

The report comes with a draft designation instrument for the sector. This draft sets out proposed data holders and datasets. In this case, RSPs are obliged to share a range of information, including generic product reference data. In parallel to this, a telco is also expected to supply information specific to a product they use. They should also share basic customer data and other information such as billing and usage details. This information is typically made available by retailers.

Nevertheless, the Treasury held off on proposing the inclusion of tower data and NBN broadband speed data. It expounded: “to provide a comprehensive picture of a customer’s actual broadband speeds, any data relating to an individual consumer or premises provided by NBN Co would need to be augmented by data held by that customer’s retailer relating to performance at the premises.”

Meanwhile, Optus had pushed for the postponement of CDR designation during the consultation. The telco argued that it could become an “expensive white elephant”.

“Optus is concerned with the lack of real consultation with industry and the refusal of the Treasury to provide more time for the industry to respond to the consultation paper. As a consequence of an artificially constrained timetable, Optus is unable to provide detailed comments on the implementation costs of the CDR or make comments on the types of data that are likely to be available.”

It further argued: “A large amount of data is also already digitally available to customers through telecommunications providers themselves as well as through government agencies and enterprises such as the ACCC, ACMA, and NBN Co, the TIO and other external bodies. Therefore, consideration must be given as to whether it is more efficient for this data to be provided by one of those bodies or whether hundreds of telecommunications firms should be required to standardise their data into a CDR format and provide it individually.”