Quick answer: Probably not, if your client holds the phone numbers in their own telco account and nobody pays you for arranging the phone service. Under section 87 of the Telecommunications Act 1997, you become a carriage service provider by supplying the phone service to the public yourself, or by arranging it for reward under an ongoing agreement that meets all 4 limbs of s 87(5). No licence is required.
This page is for agencies and white-label resellers of AI phone agents in Australia. It reads the definition from the Act itself (compilation No. 117, dated 4 June 2026), the ACMA’s guidance and the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) membership page. It is not legal advice: where a limb turns on your contracts, ask a telecommunications lawyer, the ACMA or the TIO.
What is a carriage service provider under the Telecommunications Act 1997?
A carriage service provider (CSP) is a person who supplies, or proposes to supply, a listed carriage service to the public using a network unit owned by one or more carriers (or covered by a nominated carrier declaration). That is the basic definition in section 87(1) of the Telecommunications Act 1997. A “listed carriage service” is defined in section 16 and covers a carriage service between points in Australia, or between a point in Australia and a point outside it, in either direction.
Section 87 actually defines a CSP five ways: s 87(1), the basic definition above; s 87(2), international services over a line link or satellite-based facility; s 87(3), secondary users of exempt network units; s 87(4), persons the Minister declares by legislative instrument; and s 87(5), intermediaries who, for reward, arrange supply by a CSP to someone else. The Act calls that last group “carriage service intermediaries”.
The definition also has carve-outs. Sections 89 to 94 switch off s 87(1) for some services: where all the customers are physically present on premises whose principal use is a business the supplier manages (s 89), and services used mainly for defence, intelligence, transport authority, broadcasting or electricity supply purposes (ss 90 to 94); ss 89 to 93 switch off s 87(2) as well. Section 95 lets the Minister determine, by legislative instrument, that s 87(1), (2), (3) or (5) does not apply to a specified service or person, and section 96 lets the Minister exempt a carriage service intermediary, or a CSP declared under s 87(4), from specified provisions. Whether any of these covers your set-up is a question for your lawyer.
For an AI voice reseller, only two of the five matter in practice: s 87(1), if you supply the phone service, and s 87(5), if you arrange it. The ACMA’s plain-language page, About carriers and carriage service providers (last updated 24 March 2026), puts it this way: a CSP “does not have its own network units”, “CSPs do not need a licence from us”, and “All CSPs must still follow the rules”. Its three examples are organisations that “resell time on a carrier network for phone calls”, that “provide access to the internet (internet service providers)”, and that “provide phone services over the internet (VoIP service providers)”. That last example is the one closest to AI voice businesses, whose agents usually reach the phone network over SIP or VoIP.
Building an AI agent on your client’s numbers is not supplying their phone service
The boundary sits in two words of s 87(1): “supplies” and “public”. The AI agent is software that answers or places calls. The carriage service is the thing that carries the call between two phones. If your client holds the number and the trunk under their own contract with a carrier or VoIP provider, that provider supplies the carriage service; you configured an application that uses it, as a web developer builds on hosting the client pays for.
“Supplied to the public” is also defined, in section 88. Under s 88(2), a carriage service used for communications between two end-users is supplied to the public if each end-user is outside the supplier’s “immediate circle”. Section 23 defines that circle: for a company, it is the company, its officers (which s 23 says includes employees), and any related body corporate within the meaning of the Corporations Act 2001 and that related body’s officers, plus any persons the Minister specifies by legislative instrument under s 23(1)(n) and (2). Two consequences follow for resellers:
- Numbers you run only for your own agency’s prospecting calls are not supplied to the public under s 88(2), because one end of every call is you.
- Numbers you run for a related company in your own corporate group sit inside your immediate circle at one end of the call, so s 88(2) is not met for that group company’s calls either.
Once the number and minutes are yours and the calls run between an unrelated client and its callers, both ends are outside your circle and the test is met.
The Act also has a separate category, the content service provider (section 97), for a person who uses, or proposes to use, a listed carriage service to supply a content service to the public, which section 15 defines to include “any other on-line service”. Whether an AI answering service is one is a separate question for your lawyer.
Am I a carriage service provider if I resell AI voice agents? The threshold table
The middle column is the provision each set-up engages. The right-hand column is a starting position for a conversation with a lawyer, not a ruling.
| Your set-up | Provision engaged | Most likely position |
|---|---|---|
| Client holds the numbers and trunk in their own telco or VoIP account, pays that provider directly; you invoice only for the AI agent, set-up and support, and no fee covers ordering, porting or managing the numbers | s 87(1): you do not supply the carriage service. s 87(5)(a): nobody pays you for arranging the carriage | Likely outside. Lowest exposure of any row |
| You refer the client to a VoIP provider; the client contracts and pays that provider directly; nobody pays you anything for the referral | s 87(5)(a) requires “for reward”; s 87(7) excludes pay received as an employee | Outside the intermediary limb, because the reward limb fails |
| Numbers sit in your own account and are used only for your agency’s own outbound prospecting | s 88(2): each end-user must be outside your immediate circle; you are one end of every call | Outside for that use |
| You supply numbers from your account to a related body corporate in your own group | s 23(1)(c)(ii): a related body corporate is inside your immediate circle, so s 88(2) is not met | Likely outside for those group calls; confirm the Corporations Act relationship |
| You refer the client to a VoIP provider that bills the client directly, but pays you a commission or revenue share, and your agreement with the client covers keeping the number running | s 87(5), all four limbs; s 87(6) says it does not matter whose agent you act as | Possibly a carriage service intermediary. This is the row to take to a lawyer |
| Numbers sit in your own VoIP or CPaaS account; your client’s customers ring them; your monthly invoice to the client includes the number or call minutes | s 87(1) supply of a listed carriage service; s 88(2) both ends outside your circle | Assume you are a CSP (the billing-name test below) |
| Your platform warm-transfers AI calls to your client’s staff phones over your own trunk and you bill for the minutes | s 87(1) and s 88(2), as in the row above | Assume you are a CSP |
| Any of the “assume CSP” rows, where the service is a standard telephone service and any customer is a residential or small business customer | TCPSS Act 1999 s 127(a)(i) and s 128(1) | Eligible CSP: must join the TIO scheme unless the ACMA exempts you |
| You are a carriage service intermediary arranging a standard telephone service (where any customers are residential or small business customers), a public mobile service or internet access | TCPSS Act 1999 s 127(b) and s 128(1) | Eligible CSP: must join the TIO scheme unless exempt |
Read the table from the top: the first four rows are the configurations in which the Act’s own wording points outside, the fifth is the grey row, and the last four are where the obligations start. Two things move a row from the top half to the bottom half: who supplies, and who gets paid for, the phone service itself; and whether both ends of the calls sit outside your immediate circle.
The billing-name test: if your name is on the bill for the phone service, assume CSP
The quickest way to apply section 87 to your own business is a rule we call the billing-name test: if your client’s invoice for the phone service has your name on it, assume you are a carriage service provider until a lawyer says otherwise.
It works because both routes into the definition leave the same fingerprint: if you supply the service under s 87(1), you bill for it, and if you arrange it for reward under s 87(5), you usually bill for it or for a bundle containing it.
The test only runs one way. A clean invoice does not prove you are outside. The fifth row of the table above is the reason: a reseller whose name is on no phone bill at all can still be a carriage service intermediary if a VoIP provider pays them a commission for signing clients and their client agreement deals with the continuing supply of the number. Section 87(6) closes the obvious argument, too: it does not matter whether you arranged the service as agent for the provider, for the client, or for anyone else.
So use the billing-name test to decide when to stop and get advice, never to decide that you are in the clear.
The intermediary limb: all four conditions in section 87(5)
“Resellers are CSPs” is broader than the Act. Under s 87(5), you are a carriage service provider as an intermediary only if all four of these are true:
- (a) you, for reward, arrange, or propose to arrange, for the supply of a listed carriage service by a carriage service provider to a third person; and
- (b) you would be a carriage service provider under s 87(1) or (2) if you had supplied that carriage service yourself; and
- (c) the commercial relationship between you and the third person is, or is to be, governed (in whole or in part) by an agreement between you and them that deals with one or more matters relating to the continuing supply of the service, whether or not for a readily ascertainable period; and
- (d) the conditions (if any) specified in a Ministerial determination under s 87(8) are satisfied.
Section 87(6) adds that it does not matter whose agent you act as, and s 87(7) says “reward” excludes pay received as an employee.
For a reseller, limbs (a) and (c) carry the weight. Limb (a) asks whether anyone pays you for arranging the phone service: a referral fee, a revenue share, a margin on minutes. Limb (c) asks whether your client agreement deals with continuing supply: keeping the number live, porting, being the contact when calls fail. Limb (d) depends on whether a Ministerial determination under s 87(8) is in force and what it says; this page has not read one, so check it with your lawyer rather than assume either way.
Note also the word “proposes” in both s 87(1) and s 87(5)(a). The definition can attach before the first call is placed, at the point you offer the service.
What attaches once you are a carriage service provider: the obligations
There is no licence and, as at 24 September 2026, no registration to apply for (see the next section). What attaches is a set of rules that apply automatically:
- The service provider rules. Section 101 of the Telecommunications Act says a service provider must comply with the service provider rules that apply to it, and makes that a civil penalty provision. Section 98 defines those rules as Schedule 2 of the Act, any ACMA or Ministerial service provider determinations under section 99, and several rules imported from the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and the National Broadband Network Companies Act 2011.
- Compliance with the Act as a whole. Clause 1 of Schedule 2 requires a service provider to comply with the Act, and defines “this Act” for that clause to include the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999 (TCPSS Act), regulations under it, and Chapter 5 of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979.
- Integrated public number database. Clause 10 of Schedule 2: while Telstra Limited is obliged by a carrier licence condition to provide and maintain the integrated public number database (IPND), a CSP that supplies a carriage service to an end-user who has a public number must give Telstra Limited the information it reasonably requires to fulfil that obligation. Clause 11 imposes the same duty towards any person or association obliged under section 472 to maintain an IPND.
- Itemised billing. Clause 13 of Schedule 2: a CSP that supplies a standard telephone service must provide itemised billing for calls, itself or through someone else, subject to exceptions in that clause for customers who opt out and for designated local calls.
- TIO membership, if you are an eligible CSP. Covered in its own section below.
- ACMA directions. Under section 102, the ACMA may give a service provider that has contravened, or is contravening, a service provider rule a written remedial direction, and the provider must not contravene it. Section 102 excludes some rules from this power.
This list covers only the provisions this page read at source. Registered industry codes, industry standards under Part 6 of the Act and other instruments are further layers for your lawyer to map.
Do I have to join the TIO as an AI voice reseller?
Yes, if you are an “eligible carriage service provider” and no exemption applies, and also if the ACMA directs you to join or determines that a class of CSPs you belong to must join (see below). Section 128(1) of the TCPSS Act requires each carrier and each eligible CSP to join the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman scheme. Section 127 defines an eligible CSP as:
- (a) a CSP who supplies (i) a standard telephone service, where any of the customers are residential or small business customers; or (ii) a public mobile telecommunications service; or (iii) a carriage service that enables end-users to access the internet; or
- (b) a carriage service intermediary who arranges for the supply of a service referred to in (a)(i), (ii) or (iii).
Limb (b) means an agency that is only an intermediary is pulled in too, if it arranges one of those three services. Whether an AI-answered number bundle is a “standard telephone service” turns on section 6 of the TCPSS Act, including its connectivity test: an end-user can ordinarily communicate with each other end-user supplied with the same service. Bring that section to your lawyer.
The ACMA can also direct a CSP to join (section 130), determine that a class of CSPs must join (section 131), or exempt a carrier or eligible CSP (section 129); its TIO scheme requirements and exemptions page lists the exemption declarations it has granted and states: “If you are unsure whether you are required to join the TIO scheme, you should seek independent legal advice.”
The TIO’s Become a member page sets the FY27 minimum fixed membership fee at $400 (excluding GST), with case fees invoiced monthly. It asks a non-member that should be one to join within 5 business days, reminds it with a further 5, and refers an organisation that refuses or does not respond within 10 business days of its request to the ACMA.
Is there a carriage service provider registration scheme in Australia?
Not in force as at 24 September 2026. The Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025 would insert a CSP registration scheme into Part 4 of the Telecommunications Act as a new Division 3A. Its status on the Parliament of Australia bill page, read on 24 September 2026, is “Before Senate”: introduced in the House of Representatives on 28 August 2025, third reading agreed there on 14 May 2026, introduced in the Senate and second reading moved on 22 June 2026. An earlier bill with the same title, introduced on 12 February 2025, lapsed at the end of the 47th Parliament on 21 July 2025.
Even if the Bill passes, registration will not bite immediately. The Parliamentary Library’s Bills Digest states that Schedule 1 commences on the earlier of proclamation or 12 months after Royal Assent, and that item 8 of Schedule 1 applies the new registration requirements after a further 6-month period starting on the day that item commences. The digest also notes that a number of matters are left to be determined by the Minister by legislative instrument.
The Department’s September 2023 discussion paper, quoted in that digest, estimated approximately 1,500 “eligible CSPs” and “a much larger number of general CSPs”. The proposed register would not reach every CSP: the digest describes new subsection 96A(2) as making registrable only eligible CSPs, as defined in section 127 of the TCPSS Act, and CSPs the Minister declares, and the Minister could also declare CSPs not to be registrable. Today the nearest public list is the TIO’s register of members, which section 133 of the TCPSS Act requires the TIO to keep open for inspection. Membership is compulsory for carriers, for eligible CSPs that are not exempt, and for any other CSP the ACMA directs to join or includes in a class it determines must join (sections 130 and 131).
What to settle before you sign the next AI voice client
The cheapest compliance decision is the one made in the proposal, before a number is bought. Four steps, in order:
- Decide who holds the numbers. If the client holds the numbers and the trunk in their own account and pays their own provider, you sit in the first row of the table. Our guide to provisioning Australian +61 numbers for AI voice agents covers the number types and caller-ID rules from the side of the business using the number, and whether an AI voice agent needs its own SIP trunk covers the trunk decision.
- Run the billing-name test on your own draft invoice. If any line bills for a number, minutes or a phone service, you are in the bottom half of the table.
- List every payment that touches the phone service. These are the “reward” in s 87(5)(a).
- Read your master services agreement for limb (c) clauses about the number’s continuing supply.
If you end up in the bottom half, that is a legitimate business model: the ACMA’s own list of CSP examples includes VoIP service providers. It simply comes with the obligations above and, often, TIO membership. The CSP question sits alongside the other rules an AI caller follows; our map of Australian AI regulation for sales agents in 2026 covers the Do Not Call Register Act, the Telemarketing Standard, the Spam Act and the Privacy Act, which apply to an AI caller on their own terms.
Zian AI builds autonomous AI sales agents across phone, SMS, email and WhatsApp and is in partnership-application beta. Partners weighing a white-label deployment through the Zian partner and white-label program should settle who holds the numbers first, because it decides which side of section 87 they are on.
Frequently asked questions
What is the definition of a carriage service provider in Australia?
Under section 87(1) of the Telecommunications Act 1997, a person who supplies, or proposes to supply, a listed carriage service to the public using network units owned by a carrier, or covered by a nominated carrier declaration, is a carriage service provider. Section 87 also covers international providers, secondary users of exempt network units, Ministerial declarations and intermediaries in subsections (2) to (5).
Do I need a licence to be a carriage service provider?
No. Carriers, which own network units, need a carrier licence. The ACMA’s page on carriers and carriage service providers states that CSPs do not need a licence from the ACMA but must still follow the rules, including the Telecommunications Act 1997 and the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999.
If I build an AI agent on my client’s Twilio or VoIP account, am I a CSP?
Not on that fact alone. If your client holds the numbers in their own account and pays their provider directly, that provider supplies the carriage service, not you. The answer can change if you are paid for arranging the phone service and your agreement with the client deals with its continuing supply, which are two of the four limbs of section 87(5).
What is the billing-name test?
A working rule for resellers: if your client’s invoice for the phone service has your name on it, assume you are a carriage service provider until a lawyer says otherwise. It only runs one way. A reseller paid a commission by a VoIP provider can still be an intermediary under section 87(5) without billing the client for anything.
Is the CSP registration scheme in force?
No, as at 24 September 2026. The Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025 would create it, and the Parliament of Australia lists the Bill as Before Senate. If passed, the Bills Digest says the registration schedule commences on proclamation or 12 months after Royal Assent, whichever is earlier, with requirements applying after a further 6 months. As the digest describes it, registration would apply to eligible CSPs and CSPs the Minister declares, not to every CSP.
Who should I ask whether my AI voice business is a carriage service provider?
A telecommunications lawyer first, with your invoices, your client agreement and any commission arrangements in hand. The ACMA regulates carriage service providers and handles TIO membership exemptions, and the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman handles membership questions. The ACMA itself says to seek independent legal advice if you are unsure whether you must join the TIO scheme.
Where every figure on this page comes from
| Figure | Who published it | Link | Date read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Section 87 defines a CSP in 5 subsections, (1) to (5); s 87(5) has 4 conditions; compilation No. 117 dated 4 June 2026 | Federal Register of Legislation (Telecommunications Act 1997) | legislation.gov.au/C2004A05145 | 24 September 2026 |
| Sections 15, 16, 23, 88 to 97, 98, 101, 102 and Schedule 2 clauses 1, 10, 11 and 13 | Federal Register of Legislation (Telecommunications Act 1997) | legislation.gov.au/C2004A05145 | 24 September 2026 |
| Sections 6, 127 to 131 and 133 (eligible CSP, TIO membership, exemptions, directions, register) | Federal Register of Legislation (TCPSS Act 1999, compilation No. 45) | legislation.gov.au/C2004A00441 | 24 September 2026 |
| CSPs do not need a licence; three examples of CSPs (resellers of call time, internet service providers, VoIP providers); page last updated 24 March 2026 | ACMA | acma.gov.au/about-carriers-and-carriage-service-providers | 24 September 2026 |
| Who must join the TIO scheme; exemption declarations; advice to seek independent legal advice | ACMA | acma.gov.au/tio-scheme-requirements-and-exemptions | 24 September 2026 |
| FY27 minimum membership fee $400 (excl GST); 5 + 5 business days to join; referral to the ACMA at 10 business days | Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman | tio.com.au/become-a-member | 24 September 2026 |
| Bill status Before Senate; introduced 28 August 2025; House third reading 14 May 2026; Senate second reading moved 22 June 2026 | Parliament of Australia | aph.gov.au bill r7358 | 24 September 2026 |
| Earlier bill introduced 12 February 2025, lapsed 21 July 2025 | Parliament of Australia | aph.gov.au bill r7317 | 24 September 2026 |
| Schedule 1 commences on proclamation or 12 months after Royal Assent; registration applies after a further 6 months; approximately 1,500 eligible CSPs (Department discussion paper, September 2023, as quoted); registrable CSPs under proposed s 96A(2) | Parliamentary Library, Bills Digest | aph.gov.au Bills Digest 26bd012 | 24 September 2026 |
General information on the law as read on 24 September 2026, not legal advice.