The Treasury has started laying the groundwork for the extension of the Consumer Data Right beyond open banking and energy, issuing a consultation paper on the application of CDR to telecommunications.

It is keen to ensure that as the system expands it includes opportunities for “cross-cutting benefits” that could support use cases “within and across sectors”.

The consultation paper is seeking feedback from industry about how the CDR should be implemented in the telecommunications sector to provide the greatest benefit to consumers.

The Treasury is also keen to identify opportunities for CDR to enhance competition, market efficiency and innovation.

The consultation paper says: “Like the banking and energy sectors, the telecommunications sector is identified as a sector that is highly concentrated, where the information about products and services is complex and bundled, making it difficult to compare and relate to consumers’ specific circumstances.”

It will be asking “the existing CDR community”, consumers and businesses to contribute.

Hopefully submissions will shed some light on the biggest problem with the rollout of open banking – the large number of exemptions the ACCC has granted to data providers.

Consultation questions cover likely use cases for consumers of telecommunications services and across sectors covered by CDR, the top consumer issues and the product data that could help, and which parts of the sector have the biggest competition and efficiency issues to resolve.