Review into pricing of telecommunications access launched by ACC
The Access Pricing Principles for telecommunications services including phone and broadband are to receive a fundamental review according to a recent announcement from the Australian competition and Consumer Commission.
Graeme Samuel, the chairman for the ACCC recently advised “This is a critical review of pricing principles which have been in place since 1997. Since this time the telecommunications regulatory, technological and competitive landscape, have and continue to evolve, and a review is timely.”
He continued saying “Industry continues to raise issues regarding the revaluation and hypothetical optimisation of existing network assets which are key to the current pricing principles, and a review is likely to be well accepted by the sector. It will draw a line in the sand and address the pricing principles afresh for the new environment.”
The indicative prices and current pricing principles for fixed line phone and broadband services will be maintained until 30th December 2010 as a result of this review said the ACCC
Rivals to Telstra will now be able to use the Telstra copper wire network to provide both broadband and fixed line services to its customers using these services.
Mr Samuel said “This will provide as much certainty as possible to industry and consumers while the fundamental approach to pricing is being reviewed.”
The areas that the current pricing and review will apply to are Wholesale Line Rental (WLR), Unconditional Local Loop Service (ULLS), the local carriage service (LCS), the public switched telephone network terminating access (PSTN) and the public switched telephone network originating access (PSTN OA) service.
This latest review is likely to go a step further in casting doubt over the future dominance in the telecommunications market along with the impending rollout of the governments National Broadband Network.
Source – TMC Net
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