The ACCC has released its final report outlining the findings of an inquiry into whether nine wholesale telecommunications services should continue to be regulated.
Access to telecommunications services in
The nine declared services subject to the inquiry were:
- Domestic transmission capacity service
- Wholesale line rental
- Local carriage service
- Wholesale Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) service
- Unconditioned local loop service
- Line sharing service
- Fixed originating access service
- Fixed terminating access service
- Domestic mobile terminating access service.
The ACCC examined how recent developments, including the completion of the NBN and declining use of
The ACCC has decided it will allow the currently declared unconditioned local loop and line sharing services to expire on
"While these two legacy network access services once enabled greater competition on
The ACCC's inquiry found that other parts of
The ACCC has therefore decided that it will extend the declarations of wholesale line rental, the local carriage service and the wholesale ADSL service for a further five years, with no variations to the service descriptions.
"In the absence of alternative services that can compete as close substitutes to these fixed line services, we decided that extending their declarations was in the long-term interests of consumers. These services will promote competition outside the NBN fixed line network,"
The ACCC has also decided that while it will extend the declaration of the domestic transmission capacity service for a further five years, it will remove regulation in geographic areas where competition is effective.
"Competition in regional and remote areas is often limited due to the significant initial investment needed to set up transmission capacity infrastructure,"
"Continuing to regulate transmission capacity infrastructure will not only promote competition in regional and remote areas but will likely lead to more efficient use of this infrastructure."
The ACCC has decided that it will simplify the domestic transmission capacity service description, so it more accurately reflects technology changes since the last declaration inquiry.
The ACCC has also decided that it will extend the declaration of the fixed originating and terminating access services until
"As there are no close substitutes to fixed line voice services, declaring the fixed originating and terminating access services will promote competition by preventing fixed network operators from exercising market power in setting unreasonable terms of access,"
The service descriptions for the fixed originating and terminating access services will be varied to reflect industry developments since the last declaration inquiry.
A further report on the ninth wholesale service reviewed, domestic mobile terminating access service, will be released separately. The ACCC anticipates publishing this report by
Background
In
The declaration of the domestic transmission capacity service is due to expire on
The ACCC is required to hold a public inquiry in the 18-month period before the expiry of a declaration under 152ALA(7)(a) of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.
A full list of the service descriptions relevant to this inquiry are available on the ACCC website: s.152AQ declared services register.
.
(C) 2024 M2 COMMUNICATIONS, source