ACCC issues facilities access code

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today issued an access code on how access to telecommunications facilities owned by telecommunications carriers, including mobile towers and underground ducts, is to be provided to other carriers seeking to install their equipment.

"The Facilities Access Code will assist new carriers to gain access to the facilities of existing carriers and thereby promote greater competition for the provision of telecommunications services", ACCC Chairman, Professor Allan Fels, said today.

"The Code will also make an important contribution to the co-location and sharing of facilities, particularly mobile phone towers, and assist in reducing any environmental damage that might otherwise arise from an excessive number of towers and overhead cables."

"The Code establishes conditions of access and standards of practice that carriers must adhere to in providing facilities access to other carriers" and will facilitate more timely and efficient access.

"Without the Code, access could be unnecessarily delayed or protracted by onerous administrative requirements or disputes over how and when facilities access is to be provided."

"The Code has been developed following extensive consultation with industry and the Australian Communications Authority which shares regulatory responsibility with the ACCC. The agencies are currently developing guidelines as to their respective regulatory roles."

The Code and its associated Explanatory Statement will be available on the ACCC's website: under telecommunications.

The Code is, however, a disallowable instrument and will be tabled in the Parliament for a 15 sitting days period by the Minister for Communications, the Information Economy and the Arts during the August sittings, which begin on 9 August 1999. The date of effect will be published in the Commonwealth Gazette.