The regulator’s plans to increase its fees to reflect new scams enforcement duties align with trends witnessed in the UK and Ireland on expanding regulator budgets
ACMA has released its planned Annual Carrier Licence Charge for consultation
On 15 August 2025, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) opened a public consultation on its proposed Annual Carrier Licence Charge (ACLC) for the 2024/2025 financial year. In line with the wider policy of the Government to recover costs of products and services (where feasible), the regulator annually consults on the fees charged per carrier licence as permitted under the Telecommunications (Carrier Licence Charges) Act 1997. Beyond the costs incurred by ACMA, the ACLC also covers costs incurred by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for its regulatory duties related to the telecoms sector. Those duties include administering the Measuring Broadband Australia programme, which evaluates broadband performance data at a national level. The consultation on the proposed ACLC will remain open until 12 September 2025.
Regulated firms will face a seven percent increase in annual fees to fund new consumer protection activities
The ACLC is comprised of five core charging components passed onto licensed operator in the sector, including: ACMA and the ACCC's costs for regulating the sector; the Government’s contribution to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU); costs incurred by industry bodies participating in the development of codes of conduct; and costs expected for relevant grants. For the prior financial year, the total proposed ACLC is A$33.6m (£16m), representing a 7% increase from the current year’s charge of A$31.5m (£15m). ACMA charges both for its regular duties in regulating the sector and in responding to systemic referrals from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) and other consumer bodies and is planning for a 9% and 26% increase in each of those components respectively. The regulator cites work to implement new industry standards from a regulatory and programmatic context, including the Financial Hardship, Consumer Complaints Handling and Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Consumer Protections industry standards, as a driver of these increased costs. The ACCC also planned a 1% increase in its costs related to its regulatory duties for the sector and a 12% increase in its budget for the Measuring Broadband Australia programme, both attributable to increasing staff costs.
ACMA is expecting its new scams duties will require future fees increases, as has been the case in Ireland and the UK in recent years
In the accompanying Cost Recovery Implementation Statement for the proposed ACLC, ACMA also describes its expectations for how its new scams related duties will increase costs in years to come. The Government has budgeted A$12.4m (£6m) over four years to finance the work needed to implement and enforce the Scams Prevention Framework, which was passed into law in February 2025. However, as the designated sectoral regulator for the telecoms industry under the framework, ACMA anticipates incorporating additional costs related to these duties beginning in the 2025/20226 ACLC. In line with recent trends in Ireland and the UK, the introduction of new duties for telecoms regulators has resulted in increasing in staffing and budgets, with online safety, digital markets and sustainability mandates representing some of the common new remits. These costs have been passed on in varying proportions as fees to regulated firms with governments also commonly increasing direct appropriations to fund new activities, as the Australian Government has done in relation to scams. As these fees continue to increase with growing responsibilities for regulators, they have also faced greater scrutiny, particularly from tech firms expected to take part in funding online safety regimes as has been the case in the UK and Italy.
