Further extension of inquiry period 12 Dec 2014
On 12 December 2014 the ACCC extended the inquiry period for making final access determinations for the six currently declared fixed line services and the wholesale ADSL service from 11 January 2015 until 11 July 2015.
The decision making period was extended by the maximum period of six months on two previous occasions:
- from 11 January 2014 to 11 July 2014
- from 11 July 2014 to 11 January 2015.
The ACCC has extended the final access determination inquiry period to allow sufficient time for appropriate consultation on a range of complex issues. As part of its consultation, the ACCC released discussion papers on both primary prices on 24 July 2014, and non-price terms and conditions on 30 October 2014. The ACCC also released a position paper on non-price terms and conditions on 23 May 2014 and a statement on the treatment of Telstra-NBN Co arrangements on 22 October 2014.
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 three 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.