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VIRTUALISATION Telstra's HFC network should be open access, says ACCAN
VIRTUALISATION Telstra's HFC network should be open access, says ACCAN | Telstra's HFC network should be open access, says ACCAN |
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| by Stuart Corner | |
| Sunday, 11 October 2009 | |
  
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ACCAN says: "The Bill fails to deal with the need for open access for telephony and broadband services delivered by a divested Telstra HFC network, or for that matter any of the other HFC networks. Whilst Telstra and Foxtel gave an undertaking some years ago to open the television channel capacity to competition (which incidentally has failed in the marketplace), the ACCC has never declared the telephony and cable modem capacity of HFC networks on the grounds that Industry competitors have never requested open access." ACCAN has called for the legislation to be amended to require the ACCC to enquire into the current state of competition. In relation to the telephony and cable modem services of all HFC networks. "Should such an enquiry discloses competitive failings, HFC networks should be declared. Open access to such services can only be in the better interests of end-users," it says. According to ACCAN, "The approach in the draft legislation is to require Telstra to divest its HFC network and thereby allow another operator to take over what remains substantially a closed access network. Apart from the observations by the chairman of the ACCC, that 'control of both the telecommunications pipes and a large volume of compelling content that is distributed over those pipes, could give one company significant market power in both telecommunications and content sectors' it is unclear to us, how the claim in the explanatory memorandum that such divesting 'could see new entrants into the Pay TV sector with new channels providing greater choice for consumers [and] see increased competition in the telephony and broadband markets as pay TV services could be bundled with other telecommunications providers'."
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