Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 21 January 2009 12:52
IT Policy -
Government Tech Policy
Page 1 of 2
A stoush has erupted between Telstra and Unwired after Telstra invoked an Unwired submission to the ACCC to claim that Unwired supported Telstra's push for "an overhaul of Australia's telecommunications regulatory regime."
Telstra issued a press release claiming that the Unwired submission "underline[d] how the regime was negatively impacting on investment in alternative access technologies such as wireless broadband," and that it "criticised the ACCC's position that there was little prospect for consumers to use services that did not rely on Telstra's copper network."
Unwired's manager regulatory & corporate affairs, David Havyatt, hit back with an email to Telstra's group managing director public policy and communications, David Quilty, saying: "you must be getting desperate when you seek solace in support from Unwired for your regulatory stance."
Havyatt continued: "Unwired does not share the Telstra view about impediments to investment as expressed through your rhetoric, uncritically...We would like to think we can make reasoned contributions to the regulatory debate without having those stances co-opted by Telstra in its desperate search for credibility."
Unwired made the submission in response to recent ACCC decisions on provision by Telstra of unconditioned local loop (ULL), wholesale line rental (WLR) and local carriage service (LCS) and on the mobile terminating access services (MTAS) provided by all mobile operators.
According to Havyatt its submission "criticised the decisions of the ACCC in relation to MTAS and the exemptions of the WLR [wholesale line rental] and LCS [local carriage service]." The WLR and LCS are essential for switch-based telcos that want to provide telephony services over Telstra's network.
Havyatt claimed that "These decisions were both inconsistent and framed to invite the Minister to regulate retail fixed to mobile calling, instead of the Commission persisting in its powers to break the economic power of Telstra in fixed line services."
CONTINUED
