Launched in May 2023, the ACCC began a combined public inquiry into whether nine wholesale telecoms services that support the provision of broadband, voice and data transmission services should continue to be regulated.
At present, telecoms services in Australia are typically unregulated unless the services are declared. The decision to declare a service is based on the ACCC being satisfied that said declaration would be in the best interests of its citizens.
The nine declared services included in the inquiry were, domestic transmission capacity service, wholesale line rental, local carriage service, wholesale ADSL service, unconditioned local loop service, line sharing service, fixed originating access service, fixed terminating access service and domestic mobile terminating access service.
As part of the inquiry, the ACCC investigated how recent developments, including the completion of the National Broadband Network (NBN) and declining use of Telstra’s copper network, have changed how telecoms services are accessed as well as how competition is protecting its citizens.
The ACCC has decided it will allow the currently declared unconditioned local loop and line sharing services to expire on 30th June 2024.
“While these two legacy network access services once enabled greater competition on Telstra’s fixed line network, the number of consumers and businesses using them today is fast approaching zero due to migration to networks such as the NBN,” said Anna Brakey, commissioner at the ACCC.
In addition, the regulator also found that other parts of Telstra’s fixed line network continue to show bottleneck and natural monopoly characteristics for voice and broadband services.
This is particularly prevalent in in regional and remote areas, as well as outside the NBN fixed line network.
As a result, the ACCC will extend the declarations of wholesale line rental, the local carriage service and the wholesale ADSL service for a further five years.
“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,” added Brakey.
While the ACCC says 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,” said Brakey.
“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.”
At the same time, it will simplify the description of domestic transmission capacity service, so it accurately reflects changes in technology since it was last updated.
The ACCC will also extend the declaration of the fixed originating and terminating access services until 30th June 2029.
The service descriptions for the fixed originating and terminating access services will be updated to reflect the latest industry developments.
“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,” concluded Brakey.
