The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today issued a Telecommunications Market Indicator report which contains selected revenue and usage information for the 2001-02 financial year.
The report is compiled using information provided by carriers that currently report under the Regulatory Accounting Framework (RAF).
"The regular issuing of this report should improve the integrity and transparency of the information provided by reporting RAF carriers, and assist the ACCC to more effectively administer the telecommunications provisions of the Trade Practices Act 1974”, Mr Ed Willett, ACCC Commissioner, said today.
The RAF is a collection of rules that require Telstra, Optus, AAPT, Primus and Vodafone to maintain financial records and prepare financial statements in a common format. On this basis, the information contained in the Market Indicator report does not provide a comprehensive overview of market shares and competition in the entire telecommunications sector. In January 2003 the ACCC issued its Disclosure Report which outlined its proposal to require the regular release of basic "market indicator" information based on RAF data. Market indicator information includes revenue, service usage and market share information for a range of retail and wholesale telecommunications services.
After a statutory consultation process, the ACCC has now decided to make this information publicly available. Given this is the first report there is no information on market growth and changes in market shares but these will likely be included in future reports.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is responsible for overseeing the development of a competitive telecommunications industry within Australia. Under Parts XIB and XIC of the Trade Practices Act 1974, the ACCC is particularly responsible for prevention of anti-competitive conduct in telecommunications markets and administration of the telecommunications-specific access regime.
In performing its functions under Parts XIB and XIC, the ACCC regularly relies on information obtained from carriers under its record-keeping rule powers. Under section 151BU in Part XIB of the Act, the ACCC has the power to make record-keeping rules by written instrument and require that specific carriers and carriage service providers comply with these rules. Sections 151BUA, BUB and BUC of the Act provide for the ACCC to disclose record-keeping rule information to the public or to specific persons under certain conditions.
The record-keeping rule powers have been used to develop the Telecommunications Industry Regulatory Accounting Framework, or RAF. The ACCC issued a final version of the current RAF in May 2001. The RAF details financial reporting requirements that apply to carriers or carriage service providers notified by the ACCC (currently Telstra, Optus, Vodafone, AAPT and Primus). The RAF also specifies what records are kept, how reports are prepared and when these reports should be provided to the ACCC.
