The Australian Communications Authority has announced that the AMPS* network will be fully closed by the 31 December 2000.
Currently the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has two AMPS services declared under the Trade Practices Act 1974, which entitles access to these services by access seekers.
The closure of the AMPS network will make these declarations redundant. Therefore the ACCC has reached a preliminary view that the AMPS declarations should be revoked.
In reaching this preliminary view the ACCC sought the views of the Telecommunications Access Forum, which reviews issues relating to access to telecommunications services. The TAF has advised the ACCC that it has no objection to the revocation of the AMPS declarations and advised the ACCC that the declarations would be redundant with the closure of the AMPS network on 31 December 2000.
The ACCC is required under the Act to seek the views of interested parties before making a decision to revoke a declaration. The ACCC does not anticipate any objections to the revocation of the AMPS declarations, as they will be redundant with the closure of the AMPS network. However, the ACCC has prepared a short paper on the issue that will be available on the ACCC's website. Interested parties should make any submissions by 31 December 2000.
*AMPS is the analogue mobile telephone system that has been superseded by the GSM and CDMA digital systems.