The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has today received a revised structural separation undertaking from Telstra.
“The ACCC welcomes the substantial revisions and additional commitments that Telstra has made in order to address ACCC and industry concerns about equivalence and transparency,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.
“However, it has become apparent through this and other processes that there are outstanding regulatory concerns in relation to wholesale ADSL services.”
The ACCC is now giving urgent consideration to initiating a public inquiry into declaration of wholesale ADSL under Part XIC of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.
In addition, the ACCC will shortly be finalising its inquiry into varying the exemption provisions in the final access determinations for the Wholesale Line Rental (WLR), Local Call Service (LCS) and Public Switched Telephone Network Originating Access (PSTN OA) services.
“Provided that the outstanding concerns around wholesale ADSL can be quickly resolved, the ACCC is otherwise minded to accept the undertaking, subject to any new issues of real substance or drafting matters arising in the course of this final round of consultation,” Mr Sims said.
The ACCC intends to invite comments from interested parties on the revised undertaking and will issue a discussion paper relating to the undertaking shortly. The consultation period will close in mid-January 2012 and the ACCC intends to make a final decision on Telstra’s undertaking in February.
The revised structural separation undertaking and supporting material will be available on the ACCC website.