The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today issued its eighth imputation testing and non-price terms and conditions report under the enhanced accounting separation regime for Telstra. The report presents data from the quarter ending 30 June 2005.
The report presents key performance indicators that compare particular aspects of Telstra's customer support services when supplied to wholesale and retail customers. ADSL related performance indicators are being reported for the first time, in addition to basic access performance indicators.
The report also presents an imputation analysis that compares Telstra's retail prices to the prices of three core* telecommunications access services. The analysis is designed to reveal whether there are sufficient margins between Telstra's retail prices and the prices it charges other service providers to use the core services (plus related costs) to allow efficient firms to compete at the retail level.
The results for fixed line voice services show that there were sufficient margins for domestic and international long-distance calls and fixed-to-mobile calls, but not for local call services (line rental and local calls combined).
The results for services supplied over the unconditioned local loop core service (ULLS) show that there were negative margins when supplying residential customers, but slightly positive margins when using the ULLS to supply ADSL and four voice services to business customers.
"On the whole, there was little change in the key performance indicators and imputed margins during the June quarter", ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said today.
*The three core access services are the local carriage service, the PSTN originating and terminating access service and the unconditioned local loop service (ULLS). The ULLS allows a competitor to lease the use of the customer's line to supply any combination of access, voice, ADSL or other data services.