Carriers call on Telstra to open separation kimono

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 13 September 2011 14:59

IT Policy - Regulation

The anti-Telstra brigade of competing carriers has demanded that the dominant market player make public internal financial data associated with its proposed structural separation negotiated with the Federal Government as part of the move to the NBN.

 

According to the Competitive Carriers' Coalition (CCC), Telstra's continuing failure to provide basic information to support its structural separation undertaking (SSU) risks paralysing the process of assessing the document,.

Telstra has yet to publish the output of its internal cost allocation model or a timeline for its proposed implementation of its SSU proposals.

The output of the internal cost model will provide the basis on which the ACCC and other stakeholders can assess whether Telstra's prices to competitors, for access to its fixed network, meet the equivalence test required by legislation.

The CCC says that Telstra told competitors soon after it released its SSU that it would be publishing the data as soon as possible.

However, it is still not forthcoming. Indeed, Telstra has now told access seekers that this material will not be made available until the consultation period is over.

Without this information, the CCC says, it is not possible to assess whether the SSU is capable of meeting the legal requirements set by the Government.

'This is a basic requirement, and one that Telstra would have been well aware was an expectation of both the ACCC and stakeholders when it first embarked on the process of developing the SSU months ago,' a CCC spokesman said.

'That it has still not published this material speaks to either incompetence or a lack of commitment on Telstra's part.

'Either way, Telstra is eroding the credibility of its own undertaking and demonstrating a continuing arrogance towards competitors the longer it delays.'