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VIRTUALISATION Outrage at Telstra's 100% PSTN access price hike
VIRTUALISATION Outrage at Telstra's 100% PSTN access price hike | Outrage at Telstra's 100% PSTN access price hike |
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| by Stuart Corner | |
| Monday, 08 May 2006 | |
  
According to the Competitive Carriers' Coalition (CCC) Telstra's proposed new prices for connecting phones amounts to an attempt to double the cost of making a phone call to a Telstra line. Telstra's lodged new PSTN originating and terminating access and local call service undertakings to cover the period 1 July 2006 to 30 June 2008. They are intended to replace the existing access undertakings for these services which were approved by the ACCC in 2004. They were lodged in March and have just been released by the ACCC which noted that, while they propose a reduction in the headline local call service prices by some 32 percent, they also propose an increase in the headline PSTN originating and terminating access prices – which more than doubles the per minute charge. "This extraordinary ambit claim by Telstra, coming at a moment in history when technology is making communications in the rest of the world cheaper than ever, can only be described as bizarre," the CCC claimed. "This is in fact nothing more than a massive abuse of market power in an attempt to land the final blow on competitors to destroy their businesses," CCC executive director David Forman said. "It is clear that the ACCC believes that the prices proposed by Telstra present an unprecedented departure from the established arrangements," he said. "The Commission has put Telstra on notice that it should not attempt to pre-empt the Commission's consideration of whether this is acceptable by trying to force the prices into the market via new contracts with its competitors. This is exactly the strategy Telstra followed to try to force up prices for the Unconditioned Local Loop service earlier this year." |
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