Latest ACCC ruling appealed against by Telstra

Following a ruling by the ACCC to deny a request made by Telstra to increase the price it charges its competitors for wholesale access to its network the telco is now lodging an appeal to have this ruling overturned.

An appeal made by Telstra to charge $30 per month to its rivals for the use of its last mile copper network in the metropolitan areas of Australia was rejected in late April by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, although the telco has now lodged a further appeal for the decision to be overturned with the Australian Competition Tribunal.

A spokesperson for Telstra said “We’re appealing because it is vital that we resolve this decade-long dispute — and getting to the bottom of assessing the underlying costs of the copper network is critical to this.”

The imposing of a $30 monthly access fee on wholesale customers wishing to access the copper network owned by Telstra to provide customers in metropolitan areas with internet and telephony services has been lobbies for by Telstra with the competition watchdog for over five years.

Access to Telstra’s copper network currently costs its wholesale competitors $16.75 per month and Telstra’s rivals would be outpriced from providing competitive internet and telephony services should this cost increase.

The spokesman for Telstra said “Our cost model supports the reasonableness of our $30 ULL (Unconditioned Local Loop) undertaking and that’s what we will put to the tribunal. The ACCC has an alternative cost model, which we believe has considerable flaws.”

When the ACCC made its ruling regarding Telstra’s application it said that it was “unlikely to promote the long-term interests of end-users, as it will not promote competition and will not encourage the economically efficient use of, and investment in, infrastructure.”

The latest decision made by Telstra to appeal against the ruling made by the ACCC shows that it was still intent on gaming the regulatory system, even after the recent reshuffle of its top brass, according to rival telco Optus.

Andrew Sheridan, the general manager of regulatory affairs said “Despite all the rhetoric about conciliation and new dawns, this proves nothing has changed. Telstra continues its legal blitzkrieg against regulation to support egregiously high access prices.”