Telstra's competitors are angry at the ACCC's decision to maintain the status quo on regulated prices for access to key Telstra wholesale services, claiming that the ACCC has reneged on long-promised reforms that would have seen prices come down significantly.

ACCAN is proposing an amendment to the telecoms legislation that would be "truly historic for enhancing end-user welfare, both for consumers and business, and in so doing strengthen the development of a networked information economy."

Australia’s federal government has come out with an offer that Australia’s dominant and supposedly independent telco, Telstra, seemingly cannot refuse: structurally separate the company or the government will do it for you.

Much of the telecoms industry - individual companies and organisations - has greeted the government's proposed new telecommunications rapturously, saying it addresses most of the concerns they have been airing for years and will give the industry a major boost.

The Government has unveiled legislation that would create the biggest shift in the telecommunications competition and access regime since market liberalisation in 1997.

The CEOs of seven of Telstra's fixed line competitors - Netspace; Macquarie Telecom; Optus; iiNet; Primus; Internode and TransACT - have written to ACCC chairman, Graeme Samuel, warning that the ACCC's recently published indicative prices for fixed line services, if implemented, would lead to a significant increase in prices of services to end users.

In a decision unlikely to please many of Telstra's competitors, the Australian Competition Tribunal has, according to the ACCC, confirmed the ACCC's view that there is a case for winding back regulated access to Telstra's wholesale voice services in certain metropolitan and CBD areas, when and where competition has sufficiently developed.

The Australian Government has published more than 30 submissions received in response to its call for industry input on the legislative framework for the National Broadband Network.

The ACCC has brushed aside claims from Optus, Primus and other carriers that there are no technically comparable substitutes to ISDN and the Digital Data Access Services in regional and rural areas and has removed these from the list of 'declared' services, giving Telstra the freedom to raise prices, or to discontinue supply if it so chooses.

Telstra's submission to the Government's regulatory reform paper has produced instant outrage from Telstra's principle competitors, Optus and the Competitive Carriers Coalition which represents a number of other major competitors.