Director’s Report

ACRS UPDATE

DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Peter Lamont

Director ACRS and Senior Policy Advisor Peter.Lamont@neca.asn.au

THE AUSTRALIAN CABLING REGISTRATION SERVICE (ACRS) IS ONE OF FIVE REGISTERED CABLING REGISTRATION PROVIDERS APPROVED BY THE AUSTRALIAN MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS AUTHORITY (ACMA). ACRS IS A WHOLLY-OWNED SUBSIDIARY OF NECA.

As well as providing cabling provider registration services, ACRS provides access to regular, timely, and up-todate information on the state of the data and telecommunications industry, and makes representations to the Federal Government on behalf of the industry on policy and compliance matters.

At the end of the June 2021 quarter, there were 26,491 providers registered through ACRS. Around 50% of the registered cablers worked primarily in the telecommunications industry. A further 40% worked primarily within the electrical industry sector, with the balance being made up of workers in the computing, data, fire, security or other industry sectors. ACRS has an active process of contacting cablers when they don’t re-register to make sure their cabling registration stays up-to-date.

The staff at ACRS recently moved to NECA’s Centre of Excellence at Chullora. This has given ACRS better access to the diversified services available through NECA and more modern facilities from which to offer registration services to cablers.

ACRS continues to be active in policy debates. Recently ACRS partnered with NECA in preparing a submission to the Communications Alliance in response to their discussion paper on the convergence between electrical and telecommunications cabling. This discussion paper looks at options on what level of training and qualifications a cabler should hold when working on ES3 wiring as defined in the cabling Wiring Rules AS/CA S009:2020.

ACRS are concerned that communications workers have not been given anywhere near the level of adequate training required to deal with the potential electrical hazards that can eventuate from ES3 rated cabling work, which can sustain voltage levels significantly greater than ELV at up to 1,000 volts.

ACRS continues to meet with ACMA, though our meetings are now all via Microsoft Teams rather than face-toface. Most recently ACRS promoted the need for better monitoring and compliance of the cabling industry. ACRS also worked with ACMA to ensure the TCA1 Form has been updated to include the latest edition of the Wiring Rules. This updated form is now available on our website.

Reminder: The TCA1 Form must be completed by the registered cabler for every job and a copy must be given to the customer. The registered cabler must retain a copy for at least twelve months.