MacTel rapped for not reporting customer data

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has nabbed Macquarie Telecom for failing to upload customer information to the Integrated Public Number Database (IPND).

The database is an industry-wide collection of all listed and unlisted public telephone numbers managed by Telstra. Under the Telecommunications Act 1997, providers are required to provide the public numbers of their customers to the IPND.

The IPND is used by law enforcement and emergency services to respond to emergency calls. It includes public numbers, names of customers and the name of their services provider.

ACMA found that out of MacTel’s 1.4 million services in operation, 142,499 of them from 1272 customers did not have accurate records.

Out of the unreported records, 130,883 of those services were ported from other providers, who customer details had not been re-entered into the IPND by MacTel. Another 11,616 services had no IPND record at all.

CRN understands the link MacTel used to update customer details to the IPND using a third-party provider failed, meaning Telstra never received any updates.

“Since identifying the problem, we have worked to identify where and how we can improve our processes and systems, and worked closely with ACMA to ensure they are satisfied with our proposed responses,” said MacTel national executive Matt Healy.

“We believe that the additional processes we have put in place will ensure that there is no further incident with our IPND processes.”

ACMA noted that MacTel coorperated fully during the investigation and has since initiated improvements following the findings.

“Failure by a telco to provide customer information to the IPND is an issue that the ACMA takes very seriously, particularly given emergency service organisations rely on it to respond to calls to triple zero,” said acting ACMA chairman Richard Bean.

MacTel reported a $2 million net profit for the half year ending 31 December 2015, and revenue up from $95 million to $100.1 million.

Its telco business only operates in the business and government markets, and does not service the residential market.