Telstra fails again on SSU, says Macquarie Telecom

Stuart Corner
Monday, 16 January 2012 06:05

IT Policy - Regulation

Macquarie Telecom has issued a damning assessment of Telstra's revised structural separation undertaking saying it fails to provide for equivalence, transparency, monitoring and compliance in an appropriate and effective manner.

The views were expressed in a submission - prepared by legal firm Maddocks for Macquarie Telecom - to the discussion paper issued by the ACCC late last year seeking submissions on the revised SSU lodged by Telstra in an attempt to address concerns raised by the ACCC and other to its initial SSU.

According to the Macquarie submission: "While the revised SSU now contains an overarching commitment to equivalence of outcomes, Macquarie submits it does not address those issues and concerns raised by the ACCC in its August discussion paper and many of the substantive concerns raised by Macquarie and extensively documented in the previous submissions."

Macquarie accused Telstra of having "focused its attention on developing complex processes and procedures, rather than providing wholesale customers with positive commitments and obligations to provide equivalence and transparency."

It claimed that: "Despite the changes made by Telstra, the SSU remains a regime which is riddled with the convoluted process driven features, undue complexities and excessive discretion which blighted the operational separation regime and lead the ACCC to declare that regime an abject failure."