The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today announced it intends to extend the declarations that enable Telstra's competitors to provide fixed voice and broadband services over Telstra's copper network for a further five years.
The ACCC's draft decision forms part of its ongoing review of the declarations of the six fixed-line services, and interested parties are invited to submit responses to the draft.
"The ACCC considers there is a need for as much regulatory certainty as possible regarding the access arrangements that apply to the fixed network services for all industry participants," Acting ACCC Chairman, Mr Peter Kell, said today.
The ACCC considers the Government's National Broadband Network, announced in April 2009, will have a major effect on the future telecommunications regulatory environment, particularly in relation to the regulation of the fixed services subject to this declaration review. A lack of certainty regarding ongoing access in a period of transition could have a significant negative impact on competition and investment by both access providers and access seekers, to the detriment of end users.
With this in mind, the draft decision flags the ACCC's intention to extend each of the six declarations for the full statutory period available. The ACCC is satisfied that sufficient statutory mechanisms exist to review the regulation of fixed-line services if required at any time, given a change in market conditions or other developments, such as the NBN services becoming available.
The ACCC provided substantial analysis on fixed network issues in its November 2008 discussion paper and received a number of submissions in response. However, the draft decision provides an additional opportunity for consultation before a final decision is made, prior to the expiry of the declarations on 31 July 2009.
Submissions responding to the draft decision must be lodged with the ACCC by 25 June 2009.
The telecommunications access regime
Under Part XIC of the Trade Practices Act 1974, the ACCC may determine that particular carriage services and related services are 'declared' services. Once a service is declared, carriers and carriage service providers (CSPs) are required to comply with standard access obligations (SAOs) in relation to any such service that they supply.
Where a dispute over access to a declared telecommunications service cannot be resolved between an access provider and an access seeker, either of the parties may refer the matter to the ACCC for arbitration.
Ordinary access undertakings can also be lodged in relation to current declared services. Division 5 of Part XIC of the Act enables access providers to voluntarily lodge written undertakings with the ACCC specifying the terms and conditions upon which they agree to supply a specified service. The ACCC can accept or reject the undertaking. The access provider can seek to vary an undertaking that is in force or it can withdraw the undertaking.
The six declared fixed-line services
The declaration inquiry is considering the future regulation of the key wholesale and access services delivered over Telstra's copper-based fixed network, which are used to provide fixed voice and fixed voice broadband services to end-users.
The six fixed-line services considered are the unconditioned local loop service (ULLS), line sharing service (LSS), local carriage service (LCS), wholesale line rental (WLR), public switched telephone network (PSTN) originating access (OA) and terminating access (TA).
The ULLS is a service for access to unconditioned cable, usually a copper wire pair, between a telephone exchange and an end user's home or office. The ULLS essentially gives an access seeker the use of the copper pair without any dial tone or carriage service. This allows the access seeker to use its own equipment in an exchange to provide a range of services, including traditional voice services and high speed internet access, to the end-user.
The LSS is a service that allows access seekers to provide broadband services to end-users via access to the higher frequency part of the copper line, while the access provider supplies the underlying PSTN voice service over the same copper line.
The LCS is a wholesale local call service that allows access seekers to resell local calls to end-users.
The WLR service involves the provision of a basic line rental service that allows an end-user to connect to the public switched telephony network.
The PSTN OA service is a wholesale service used by access seekers to supply a range of voice-grade calls, including international, national long distance and fixed to mobile calls.
The PSTN TA service is a wholesale service for the carriage of telephone calls from a point of interconnection (POI) within an access seeker’s network to the party receiving the call.