ACCC brews TEA trouble for Telstra over ULL price modelling

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 10 July 2008 12:07

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

The ACCC has warned Telstra that unless it can satisfy the ACCC that the TEA model is accurate and contains no material errors, "the ACCC may have no alternative but to give the model little weight in conducting its assessment of the Undertaking."

Telstra's competitors are also using revelation of the errors to question Telstra's cost claim for the National Broadband Network Maha Krishnapillai, director of government and corporate affairs at Optus said: "This is a body blow to Telstra's credibility. It's the latest in a long line of rejections of Telstra's make-believe costings and modelling. It raises serious questions about the hyper-inflated model for NBN they are wheeling around town."

The Competitive Carriers' Coalition (CCC) questioned whether the errors were, in fact accidental. Executive director, David Forman said: "Telstra claimed its previous models – the so called PIE and PIE II models – were honest and reliable. However, both were proven to be deeply and fundamentally flawed...It is hard to believe that it is a coincidence that all of these models had flaws that resulted in Telstra's customers being asked to pay more than they should. The ACCC and the rest of the industry have been put to vast expense assessing these serially misleading models from Telstra over many years. The ACCC has for years been reporting that Telstra has abused regulatory process simply to cause disruption to competitors. It is hard to think of another company in Australia with such a terrible record for dishonest conduct in regulatory matters."