Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 16 July 2008 08:44
Opinion and Analysis
Page 3 of 4
The ACCCC, Ofcom's Australian counterpart (at least in this aspect of telecoms regulation) has no powers to be similarly pro-active. It could only, and did, invite Telstra to submit a special access undertaking for its proposed FTTN network in which Telstra would set up proposed wholesale access prices and terms. The ACCC then would have had only two choices: to accept or reject. Had it rejected such an undertaking it could have suggested modifications to made to give a re-submitted undertaking a better chance of acceptance.
But in Australia only the government has the power to modify the regulatory regime in the way described by Richards, and sought by Telstra.
In a speech earlier this month, Richards said: "Super-fast broadband is crucial to the UK's future. These next generation networks form part of the critical infrastructure of the country's economy and will be central to the way we live our lives in the future...Here as much as anywhere we need to ensure that there is a healthy environment for investment – which can support, in turn, competition and innovation.
"Our position is clear. Ofcom favours a regulatory environment for the next generation of networks and access that both allows and encourages operators to make risky investments, to innovate for the benefit of consumers and, if the risks pay off, for the benefit of their shareholders too.
We are very clear that if operators are going to make investments in new infrastructure, investment that is inherently more risky than developing the existing infrastructure, then they need to know that the regulatory framework will allow them to make and keep a rate of return that is commensurate with the risks they are taking.
"And they need a time horizon that gives them a degree of assurance for a realistic period in the future; that they know for example that the regulator will not suddenly change the rules of the game to reduce the returns just as the rewards for the risk start to flow in."
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