The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has launched its new Critical Information Summaries, which provides consuemrs with two pages of essential information about a telecommunications product or service.

Launched late last week, the CIS scheme will see telcos obliged to provide features, pricing, inclusions and exclusions n a two page document.

The CIS marks the first time Australian consumers will be able to compare plans like for like. CIS documents must now be provided to the consumer for free at point of sale or on service provider’s website.

“The Australian Communications and Media Authority expects a similarly high level of industry compliance with the CIS requirements as it has seen with the new advertising rules in the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code,” said ACMA Deputy Chairman, Richard Bean.

“Industry has fundamentally changed the way it advertises telecommunications products and moved away from representations that confuse consumers,’ he added. ‘For example, we asked it to scrap the use of the word "cap" as well as stopping inaccurate use of terms such as "free" and "unlimited". The CIS is the next step in improving the telco customer experience.”

March 1 also sees the introduction of a new code requirement that bills for included value plans provide total charges for the last three billing periods. This will allow consumers to check if they are consistently exceeding their allowances and consider changing their plan.