ACCC issues ISDN and Data service declaration review discussion paper

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission announced today that it would hold a public inquiry reviewing the ISDN and Digital Data Access Service (DDAS) declarations.

A discussion paper has being issued today which identifies issues relevant to the review and which seeks comments on particular aspects of ISDN, DDAS and related markets and of the impact of regulation on these markets. The discussion paper is available on the ACCC's website (see links).

The purpose of the public inquiry is to determine whether the declaration of the ISDN and DDAS services should be maintained, varied or revoked by the ACCC.

The ISDN is used for the carriage of information such as voice, data, high quality sound, text, still images and video over the public switched telephone network (PSTN). It is a digital communications service which uses the same copper wire lines used for standard telephone services. ISDN services enable the end-user to send and receive information at faster speeds and with greater reliability than is possible using the analogue carriage service of the PSTN. The service was declared in 1998.

The DDAS is an access service for the domestic carriage of data. The service can combine the use of a customer access line with management to ensure high quality data transmission. The service also includes a number of options, including the provision of higher level customer management facilities and network control. The service was declared in 1997.

The ISDN and DDAS service declarations expire in June 2005 and, under the Trade Practices Act 1974, the ACCC is required to complete its review prior to this date.

To assist its decision, the ACCC is seeking submissions on its discussion paper from stakeholders and interested parties by Monday 11 October 2004. Responses should be addressed to: Mr John Bahtsevanoglou, Telecommunications, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, 35/360 Elizabeth St, Melbourne 3000.

The ACCC expects to issue a draft report setting out its preliminary findings early in 2005.

Background

The ACCC is required to conduct this review pursuant to section 152ALA of the Act. Under Section 152ALA, the ACCC is required to specify expiry dates for existing declarations within five years of their commencement and complete a review of all declarations prior to their expiry dates. The review is to be conducted pursuant to Part 25 of the Telecommunications Act 1997.

The first step in the declaration review process is for the ACCC to issue a discussion paper seeking industry views on the existing service declaration. This will assist the ACCC to determine, in a preliminary sense whether maintaining, varying or revoking would be in the long term interests of end-users. The ACCC anticipates that it will release a draft report, containing its preliminary findings, early in 2005. Before the report is finalised, stakeholders will have an opportunity to comment on the preliminary findings.