Stuart Corner
Sunday, 05 March 2006 11:51
IT Policy -
Regulation
The ACCC has received notification of the first access dispute over the price Telstra charges for its unbundled local loop service (ULL) since Telstra's recent ULL price hike.
Telstra created uproar in the industry last month when it announced a flat rate of $30 per month for the ULL: before the ACCC had finalised is assessment of Telstra's access undertaking quoting this price.
The dispute has been lodged by Optus subsidiary XYZed, which has installed DSLAMs is over 100 Telstra exchanges from which it operates business grade services. This network has been in operation for several years and is quite separate from Optus' current program of DSLAM installation for residential services.
The ACCC already has before it three earlier access disputes over ULL pricing, lodged by Optus PowerTel and iiNet. Unlike ACCC findings on access undertakings ACCC rulings on access disputes cannot be appealed to the Australian Competition Tribunal. However Telstra could launch a challenge to the ACCC in the federal court claiming failure to follow due process in making the arbitration and could conceivably ask the court to stay the implementation of the ACCC arbitrated price while the case is heard.