Telco billing and compliance software for Australian ISPs and MVNOs

What does a small telco’s stack look like?

A small telco runs on four systems: billing and rating, provisioning to its wholesale suppliers, a CRM or ticketing tool, and customer channels. The first two are usually one specialist platform. The rest is often a mix of a help desk product, a website and a lot of spreadsheets.

Function	Typical approach	Gap that drives custom work
Billing and rating	Emersion or a wholesaler platform	Hardship arrangements, compliance records
Provisioning	NBN through a wholesaler or directly, mobile through an MVNE	Exception handling across suppliers
CRM and support	Salesforce, a help desk tool or the billing platform’s CRM	Authentication steps, outage messages, TIO case tracking
Customer channels	Website, portal, app	Self service that respects the standards

Emersion describes itself as a billing, service management and automation platform for telcos, ISPs and wholesalers, with NBN provisioning and usage rating. For most providers, configuring a platform like this is the right base. The compliance workflows around it are where providers differ and where regulators look.

Which ACMA standards shape your systems?

Since 2024 ACMA has moved key consumer protections from industry codes into enforceable standards, and three of them drive most system design: financial hardship, complaints handling and outage communications. ACMA’s register lists the Telecommunications (Financial Hardship) Industry Standard 2024 (made 1 February 2024), the Consumer Complaints Handling Standard 2018 as amended in April 2025, the Customer Communications for Outages Standard 2024 as varied in April 2025, and the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Consumer Protections Standard 2025 (made 6 June 2025).

The Financial Hardship Standard, which replaced the hardship chapter of the TCP Code, is the most workflow heavy. ACMA says telcos must:

1. Publish a payment assistance policy, linked from the homepage and summarised where customers apply.
2. Proactively identify customers who are, or may be, in financial hardship.
3. Train customer facing staff on the standard, the policy and the procedures.
4. Offer at least 6 assistance options, including compulsory options to defer payment and to set up a payment plan the customer can afford.
5. Tell the customer the outcome within 2 business days, with assessment still within 5 business days.
6. Use suspension or disconnection only as a last resort.
7. Keep records that show compliance.

For outages, ACMA says that during a major outage telcos must send update notifications to affected customers every 6 hours in the first 24 hours, then once every 24 hours, and publish current information on their website. From 30 June 2026, carriers must also publish outage registers.

A compliance layer turns each of these into a workflow with timers, templates and an audit trail rather than a training slide.

How should you authenticate customers before high risk transactions?

The Telecommunications Service Provider (Customer Identity Authentication) Determination 2022 requires multi factor authentication for all high risk customer transactions. ACMA’s list includes SIM swaps, postpaid to prepaid transfers, transfers of title, adding services to an account, activating a service for an overseas customer, buying an additional phone, and blocking an IMEI or PEI.

ACMA gives examples. When a customer starts the transaction: a username and password plus a unique code or secure link sent to their mobile number or validated app. When the telco starts it: calling the number on the account and asking the customer to confirm their name. Any code or link must say a high risk interaction has started, warn the customer not to share it, and explain what to do if they didn’t start it.

In software terms:

• one authentication service used by every channel (web, app, call centre, retail)
• a list of high risk transaction types held as configuration
• customer level fraud protections: account flags, change notifications, restricted channels, paused transactions
• logs of every authentication attempt, kept for at least 1 year as ACMA requires

What is happening with the TCP Code?

The TCP Code (C628:2019, incorporating Variation No.1/2022) is still the registered code, but ACMA is replacing it with a standard. The Australian Telecommunications Alliance, formerly Communications Alliance, reports that ACMA announced on 27 March 2026 that it would replace the code with an industry standard under section 125 of the Telecommunications Act, and that the 2019 code remains in force until the standard commences.

ACMA opened consultation on the draft Telecommunications (Consumer Protections) Industry Standard 2026 on 29 September 2026, closing on 10 November 2026. ACMA says the proposed standard would require telcos to have systems, processes, training and accountability to deliver fair outcomes; to sell responsibly and remedy mis selling; to follow rules on sales incentive payments; to let customers cancel simply; to give clear billing and flexible payment options; and to disconnect only as a last resort.

Separately, ACMA said on 15 October 2026 that new laws substantially increase maximum penalties for breaches of codes and standards, make registered codes directly enforceable, and create a telco registration scheme that can keep providers with serious compliance failures out of the market. ACMA will publish implementation details before the scheme commences.

What to build for now: workflows driven by configurable rules, with evidence captured at each step, so the commencement of the new standard is a settings change and a test cycle rather than a rebuild. Check ACMA’s site before you scope, because these dates are moving.

How do NBN and wholesale integrations work?

Most small providers buy NBN access through a wholesaler or white label provider rather than direct from NBN Co, and that choice decides which integrations you get. NBN Co says access to tools and information varies with how you choose to sell, and that different wholesale or white label providers offer different options. Direct providers connect to NBN’s points of interconnect under the Wholesale Broadband Agreement.

Custom integration work usually covers:

• order and service qualification lookups from your sign up flow
• fault and appointment status shown in your portal
• exception queues for stalled orders across more than one wholesaler
• reconciliation between wholesale invoices and your own billing

What data retention and IPND obligations apply?

Service providers must keep specified telecommunications data for at least two years under the data retention scheme, which started on 13 October 2015. The OAIC says the scheme sits in Part 5-1A of the TIA Act, that retained data is treated as personal information under the Privacy Act, and that Part 13 of the Telecommunications Act separately requires records of certain disclosures.

The Integrated Public Number Database is governed by industry code C555:2024, registered on 9 December 2024, which sets rules for providing accurate information to the IPND. Your systems need an IPND feed that updates when customers join, move or leave, and a check that the data is right.

A data breach of customer identity or metadata also brings Privacy Act notification duties. Our Notifiable Data Breaches guide covers what software needs for that.

What can AI do in telco support, and what needs a person?

AI can handle routine questions and paperwork; anything touching hardship, family violence, complaints or high risk transactions needs a trained person and proper authentication. A useful split:

Task	AI suitable?	Why
Plan, usage and bill questions	Yes	Answers from the customer’s own data
Outage status	Yes	Pulls from the outage register and network status
Summarising a case for an agent	Yes	Saves handle time, a person decides
Detecting hardship or vulnerability signals	As a flag only	The standard expects proactive identification; staff must act
Hardship arrangements	No	Must be tailored by trained staff
SIM swap, ownership change	No	High risk transaction under the determination
Complaint resolution	Assist only	Standard sets handling and timeframes

Our AI chatbot service describes how we design handover rules.

What do telco builds cost?

These are indicative AUD planning ranges, ex GST, not quotes. Expeed publishes $40,000 to $150,000 for mid complexity custom software in Australia.

Build	Includes	Indicative range
Hardship and authentication workflow	Hardship cases, timers, options, MFA service, fraud flags, audit logs	$40,000 to $110,000
Customer self service portal	Account, usage, bills, payments, outage status, support, hardship entry point	$60,000 to $160,000
Outage communications module	Register, customer targeting, scheduled updates, website status	$25,000 to $60,000

The main drivers are the billing platform’s API, the number of wholesale suppliers and how many channels must share one authentication service. Our customer portal guide covers portal scoping in general.

How AWLabs approaches telco software

AWLabs is not a carriage service provider and has not yet delivered a project for a telco, so we won’t claim sector experience. We bring integration, workflow, authentication and AI engineering, and we build to your compliance team’s reading of the standards. Each engagement starts with a Development Consult, then a paid Discovery Audit that maps your platform and the evidence each standard expects. You receive a fixed price Schedule of Work with three options: The Minimum, The Recommended and The Complete. Senior engineers lead every build, with updates every Tuesday and Friday, Sydney business hours. See our enterprise software service.

This page is general information, not legal advice, and reflects the rules as at 8 November 2026.