On 20 July 2026, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) opened public consultation on a package of amendments to the Telecommunications (Labelling Notice for Customer Equipment and Customer Cabling) Instrument 2025 (the TLN) and two draft 2026 technical standards governing customer equipment supplied in Australia. The consultation closes at 5 pm AEST on Thursday 17 September 2026. For manufacturers and importers of mobile phones and other terminal equipment, the package points to a tighter compliance regime: longer record-keeping, less grandfathering for handsets, and a mandated shift to the latest emergency-call-access standard.
The TLN is the binding instrument that requires manufacturers and importers to test and label customer equipment before supply, demonstrating compliance with ACMA technical standards under the Telecommunications Act 1997. ACMA is now proposing three concrete changes, paired with two new draft standards open for comment: the Draft Telecommunications (Mobile Equipment Air Interface) Technical Standard 2026 and the Draft Telecommunications (Customer Equipment Safety) Technical Standard 2026. The consultation paper and the marked-up compilation of draft TLN amendments are published on the official ACMA consultation page.
What exactly is ACMA proposing to change?
Three amendments are on the table. First, the TLN's record-keeping timeframe for standards compliance would be extended, meaning responsible suppliers would have to hold compliance evidence longer than they do today. Second, ACMA proposes to limit the grandfathering arrangements for mobile phones: subject to a transition period, mobile phones would have to comply with the latest technical standard for emergency call access, closing the route by which older handset models continue to be supplied against an older standard. Third, the package adopts a revised industry standard for the safety of customer equipment, with changes to recognise compliance with overlapping requirements in aviation or electrical safety standards frameworks, reducing duplicate testing where scopes converge.
The two draft 2026 standards carry the technical content. The Mobile Equipment Air Interface Technical Standard 2026 sets the air-interface requirements mobile equipment must meet to connect to Australian networks. The Customer Equipment Safety Technical Standard 2026 sets the safety requirements for customer equipment more broadly, and is the instrument the revised safety-industry-standard recognition hooks into.
Who is affected, and what are the commercial stakes?
The package reaches every actor that places telecommunications customer equipment on the Australian market. The directly exposed commercial audience is handset makers supplying Australia, including Apple, Samsung, Google, Xiaomi, Oppo and Motorola, plus the Australian importers who act as responsible suppliers for overseas brands, and the test labs and compliance consultancies that prepare their Regulatory Compliance Mark (RCM) conformity evidence. The mobile-phone grandfathering limit is the change with the clearest commercial edge: it forecloses continued supply of handset models certified only against an older emergency-call-access standard, which can force a retest and recertification decision for models still in the Australian sales channel.
The extended record-keeping timeframe raises the document-retention burden for every responsible supplier registered under the TLN. The safety-standard alignment change matters most to multi-regime manufacturers, who can offset TLN safety testing against aviation or electrical-safety certifications they already hold.
What is the compliance timeline, and when must suppliers act?
The consultation itself is the immediate deadline. ACMA seeks submissions by 5 pm AEST on Thursday 17 September 2026, a window of roughly 59 days from opening. The draft instruments are not yet in force: they take legal effect only once ACMA makes the amended TLN and the two 2026 standards as legislative instruments, registered on the Federal Register of Legislation. As proposed, the mobile-phone emergency-call-access mandate is subject to a transition period, so suppliers will get a runway after the instruments are made, but the shape of that transition is itself one of the consultation's live questions.
| Proposed change | Current position | Impact for suppliers |
|---|---|---|
| Extend TLN record-keeping timeframe | Shorter retention of compliance evidence | Longer document-retention duty for every responsible supplier |
| Limit mobile-phone grandfathering, mandate latest emergency-call-access standard | Older handset models can be supplied against an older standard | Recertify in-channel handsets to the latest standard after a transition period |
| Adopt revised safety industry standard with overlap recognition | Safety testing not offset against aviation or electrical-safety regimes | Reduced duplicate testing where scopes converge |
How should manufacturers and importers respond by 17 September?
Suppliers should treat the 59-day window as the decision point, not the finish line. Read the marked-up TLN compilation against your current compliance records, map which in-channel handset models rely on the grandfathering route the proposal would close, and cost the retest and recertification path for those models against the likely transition period. Test labs and consultancies should quantify the record-keeping extension against their existing retention systems, and multi-regime manufacturers should audit where aviation or electrical-safety certifications could substitute for TLN safety testing under the revised recognition rules.
A submission is the formal lever. ACMA publishes submissions per its submissions policy, so positions on the transition period, the grandfathering cut-off, and the record-keeping timeframe carry weight only if filed before the 17 September 2026 close.
Take advantage of this real-time watch
Verify which of your products fall inside the amended TLN scope, confirm the transition period against your product roadmap, and brief your regulatory affairs and test-lab leads before the September close. Continuous, per-jurisdiction real-time monitoring surfaces this kind of draft-instrument change the moment ACMA publishes it, before it binds.
