The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has issued the MTAS Pricing Principles Determination relevant for 1 July 2007 to 31 December 2008. The previous MTAS Pricing Principles Determination expired on 30 June 2007.*
The Trade Practices Act 1974 requires the ACCC to have regard to a pricing principles determination if the ACCC is required to arbitrate a MTAS access dispute.
The MTAS Pricing Principles Determination proposes an indicative price for the MTAS of 9 cents per minute from 1 July 2007 to 31 December 2008.
The indicative prices have been informed by the WIK Model, international cost benchmarks and other cost models.
Any future pricing determinations will consider a range of factors as set out in the supporting documentation and will continue to consider efficiently incurred costs of MNOs with reference to actual costs consistent with the Australian Competition Tribunal's position.
The MTAS Pricing Principles Determination and other supporting material are available on the ACCC's website.
The ACCC today also announced its final decision to reject the access undertakings submitted by Optus Mobile Pty Limited and Optus Network Pty Limited (together, Optus).**
The Optus 2007 Undertaking claimed 12cpm was a reasonable price for the supply of the MTAS.
"The ACCC has rejected the Optus 2007 Undertaking because it cannot be satisfied that the price terms and conditions are reasonable," ACCC Commissioner, Mr Ed Willett, said. "The Tribunal has placed a clear obligation on providers to establish that their costs are efficient costs and Optus has not provided evidence to support the price in its undertaking."
Copies of the ACCC's final decision will be available on the ACCC website.