Access Determination for the wholesale ADSL service

Extension to the wholesale ADSL FAD public inquiry

The ACCC has decided to extend the period for making the Final Access Determination (FAD) for the wholesale ADSL service until 13 August 2013. The ACCC was unable to finalise the FAD within the previous extended period due to the time and complexity involved in determining the matter. The ACCC has also extended the expiry date of the interim access determination for the wholesale ADSL service until the day immediately before the day the FAD comes into force. The ACCC intends to publish a draft FAD in early March and anticipates finalising the FAD prior to 13 August 2013.

On 5 December 2012, Telstra provided the ACCC with a further public expert report on wholesale ADSL pricing. Telstra also provided the ACCC with two confidential expert reports on wholesale ADSL pricing.

Second information request - September 2012

On 27 September 2012, the ACCC sent a second information request to Telstra:

Further consultation on congestion issues - September 2012

On 5 September 2012 the ACCC sought further submissions from interested stakeholders on the relevance of network congestion to making the final access determination for wholesale ADSL. In response to the second discussion paper, Telstra submitted on the relevance of network congestion to setting terms of access to wholesale ADSL. These issues were not addressed in the second discussion paper and consequently the ACCC did not seek submissions on the subject matter.

In October 2012 the ACCC received four submissions on congestion. On 16 November 2012 Telstra provided a further submission on ADSL congestion.

Information request - August 2012

On 10 August 2012, the ACCC sent the following information request to Telstra:

The ACCC accepts Telstra's timing of response.

On 6 July 2012, the ACCC released a second discussion paper (issues paper) into making a Final Access Determination (FAD) for the wholesale ADSL service. The ACCC also extended the public inquiry into making an FAD for the wholesale ADSL service until 13 February 2013.

The ACCC sought submissions on a range of primarily non-price issues to assist the ACCC in making the draft FAD. In response to a request from Telstra, the ACCC extended the period for submissions in response to the paper for all interested parties by three weeks until COB on 24 August 2012.

Access to confidential material - second issues paper

AAPT, Herbert Geer (on behalf of Adam Internet and iiNet), Nextgen and Optus provided confidential versions of their submissions to the second issues paper.

Telstra also provided confidential versions of its submissions and additional confidential material. This includes a confidential-only consultant report of Gowrisankaran and MacKie-Mason on "Efficient Pricing of ADSL Wholesale services". Interested parties seeking access to this material must be approved by Telstra and will be required to execute an applicable confidentiality undertaking acceptable to Telstra. For queries about access to the confidential version of Telstra's submission, please contact Mr Gerry O'Brien at Telstra: gerry.obrien@team.telstra.com or on 03 8649 2042.

Discussion paper - February 2012

On 14 February 2012, the ACCC commenced a public inquiry and issued a discussion paper into the making of a Final Access Determination (FAD) under section 152BC(1) of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth).

Submissions on the discussion paper were due by COB 30 March 2012.

Note: The ACCC granted an extension on submissions until COB 10 April 2012.

Interim Access Determination - February 2012 

On 14 February 2012 the ACCC also made an interim access determination (IAD) regarding access to the wholesale ADSL service under section 152BCG of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth).

The IAD and accompanying statement of reasons can be found below.