On 7 April 2015, the ACCC commenced an access determination inquiry in relation to the Local Bitstream Access Service (LBAS) as required under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.
On 23 September 2015, the ACCC extended the inquiry period for making the next LBAS final access determination until 7 April 2016 as it was not in a position to finalise the making of the new final access determination. It also extended the current LBAS final access determination until the day before a new final access determination comes into force.
When announcing the LBAS final access determination inquiry, the ACCC said that it would commence consulting after the conclusion of the Superfast Broadband Access Service (SBAS) declaration inquiry. This is because the SBAS (if declared) would have similar characteristics to the LBAS and consultation in relation to the LBAS final access determination is likely to consider matters also relevant to SBAS pricing.
To accommodate this the ACCC extended the inquiry period for the LBAS final access determination inquiry on a number of occasions as provided for under the CCA. The current extension applies until 28 July 2017.
On 29 July 2016, the ACCC made a decision to declare an SBAS. This declaration commenced on 29 July 2016 and will expire on 28 July 2021. On the same day, the ACCC commenced an SBAS final access determination inquiry and decided to combine the SBAS final access determination inquiry with the current LBAS final access determination inquiry.
On 15 September 2016, the ACCC released a consultation paper for this combined SBAS/LBAS final access determination public inquiry.
On 9 January 2017, the ACCC released its draft decision and draft SBAS and LBAS final access determinations for comment. Submissions on the draft decision and final access determinations closed on 17 February 2017.
On 24 March 2017, the ACCC released a further consultation paper for the joint SBAS/LBAS final access determination inquiry. Submissions on the further consultation paper closed on 7 April 2017.
On 26 May 2017, the ACCC released its final report on its inquiry to make final access determinations for the SBAS and LBAS declared services, and its final decision on the final access determinations.
All public submissions and reports relating to this combined SBAS/LBAS final access determination public inquiry will appear on the SBAS final access determination inquiry.