Final report1 Apr 2019

The ACCC concluded its inquiry into the review of the declaration for the Domestic Transmission Capacity Service (DTCS) and released a final report on the findings of its inquiry. The ACCC has decided to extend and vary the declaration for the DTCS for a further five years until 31 March 2024.

Report on the final decision

The ACCC has undertaken an assessment of competition on all DTCS routes (including both deregulated and regulated routes) using a revised methodology. As a result of the assessment, the ACCC determined that a further 137 metropolitan Exchange Serving Areas (ESAs) and 27 regional ESAs are sufficiently competitive and should be deregulated.

The ACCC has decided to allow for a transitional period of 9 months to apply before the changes to the scope of regulation take effect. That is, deregulation of the additional 137 metropolitan ESAs and 27 regional ESAs will take effect from 1 January 2020.

The ACCC has also decided to vary the DTCS service description to:

  • provide a separate service classification for transmission between mobile base stations and the nearest available point on an access seeker’s network
  • provide a separate service classification for transmission services according to commonly acquired speed tiers
  • include online ordering and fault monitoring as basic service features of the DTCS, and
  • clarify the meaning of the term ‘point of interconnection’.