Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 14 January 2009 13:53
IT Policy -
Government Tech Policy
Page 1 of 2
In a rare display of consensus with the ACCC Telstra has announced it will appeal a determination by the Australian Competition Tribunal overturning the ACCC's decision to release Telstra from some wholesale local telecom service regulation in the most competitive parts of metropolitan Australia.
A Telstra spokesman said: "It is certainly significant that the ACCC and Telstra agree on this issue. Telstra wants to support the decision handed down by the ACCC because it represents a step forward in policy for Australia. It is good policy that helps encourage investment in Australia."
Announcing Telstra's decision to appeal, group general counsel, Will Irving, said the Tribunal had misinterpreted the tests that apply in deciding whether the ACCC's decision would be followed and had not taken into account the substantial evidence of real competition in metropolitan areas.
"Telecommunications competition in metropolitan and suburban Australia is intense, with some areas having eight or more competitors with infrastructure in their exchanges, providing wide choice for consumers and businesses...In going against the ACCC's decision, and essentially the ACCC's approach to regulating access to telecommunications services, the Tribunal is effectively saying it is safer to keep regulating than to let competitive forces operate."
Irving claimed the decision "makes it practically impossible for the ACCC to update regulation as the market changes...Regulating where you do not need to can distort the market, hold up much needed infrastructure investment and, in the long term, have a negative impact on innovation and customer service."
Telstra is presently required to provide wholesale line rental and local carriage service (delivery of telephone calls from its local exchanges to end users) throughout Australia. In July 2007 Telstra lodged an application with the ACCC seeking exemption from this requirement in 371 metropolitan exchange service areas (ESAs) and lodged further applications in October 2007 taking the total to 388 metropolitan ESAs.
Telstra argued that there was now sufficient infrastructure (DSLAMs) installed in these exchanges by competitors such that it no longer had bottleneck control over these services: others could provide them by simply leasing the copper pairs from the exchange to the end user (the unconditioned local loop service)
CONTINUED
