ACCC extends declaration of key telecoms services for five years

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 04 June 2009 14:08

IT Industry - Strategy

The ACCC has decided to extend for five years regulations which guarantee competitors access to a range of Telstra services essential for them to deliver services such as broadband and telephony to end users, and give the ACCC power to intervene and arbitrate and set prices, terms and conditions in any disputes that arise between Telstra and access seekers.
The decision to extend declaration of these services will be welcomed by Telstra's competitors as creating certainty on availability and, in particular, pricing for these services which represent very significant components of the cost of their services to end users.

Five years is the maximum extension allowed. The ACCC has justified the move by saying it considers the Government's National Broadband Network, announced in April, will have a major effect on the future telecommunications regulatory environment, particularly in relation to the regulation of these fixed network services, and a lack of certainty regarding ongoing access in a period of transition could have a significant negative impact on competition and investment by both access providers and access seekers, to the detriment of end users."

ACCC acting chairman, Peter Kell, said "The ACCC considers there is a need for as much regulatory certainty as possible regarding the access arrangements that apply to the fixed network services for all industry participants."
 
However, the ACCC said that it would be able to review, and if necessary, remove regulation from some of all of the services, should conditions change. "The ACCC is satisfied that sufficient statutory mechanisms exist to review the regulation of fixed-line services if required at any time, given a change in market conditions or other developments, such as the NBN services becoming available."

At this stage the ACCC's decision is provisional it is open to submissions from interested parties before issuing a final decision.

The six fixed-line services covered by the decision are:
- the unconditioned local loop service (ULLS) - used by telcos that want to provide broadband and telephony services using their own DSLAMs'
-the line sharing service (LSS), used by telcos that want to provide broadband services using their own DSLAM, but to have the standard telephony services provided on the same copper pair by another telco.
- the local carriage service (LCS) allows a service provider to resell Telstra local calls to end users
- wholesale line rental (WLR) - allows service providers to rent telephone lines from Telstra for on-rental to their customers

 - public switched telephone network (PSTN) originating access (OA) and terminating access (TA) used by telcos that have their own network of telephone exchanges but have to be able to receive and deliver calls over Telstra's customer access network.