Fixed line services final access determinations inquiry 2013

On 2 July 2014, the ACCC decided to extend the inquiry period for making final access determinations for the 6 currently declared fixed line services and the wholesale ADSL service until 11 January 2015. The decision making period was previously extended by the maximum period of six months, from 11 January 2014 to 11 July 2014.

The ACCC was unable to complete its inquiry within this inquiry period. It was required to finalise the fixed line services declaration inquiry before undertaking extensive industry consultation for the final access determination inquiry. Further, to promote industry consultation, the ACCC requested relevant pricing data for the services from Telstra. This data was received from Telstra on 25 November 2013 and February 2014.

The ACCC expects to commence extensive consultation on the primary price terms for the final access determinations with the release of a discussion paper in July 2014. The ACCC also commenced a combined consultation on non-price terms and conditions and supplementary prices for the fixed line services, the domestic transmission carriage service (DTCS) and the mobile termination access service (MTAS) final access determinations on 23 May 2014. Submissions were due on 15 July 2014.

To allow sufficient time for extensive consultation on the range of final access determination issues, it will likely be necessary for the ACCC to again consider extending the period for making the final access determinations beyond 11 January 2015.

The ACCC intended to complete the fixed line services final access determination inquiry by the end of June 2015. However, it is unlikely that it will be able to do so due to the large amount of industry consultation on a range of complex matters across the 3 final access determination inquiries and industry requests for more time to consider the issues. The ACCC will nevertheless continue to work towards a timely conclusion to this long-running inquiry.