The Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer Safeguards) Act 2010 repealed the resolution of disputes about access framework under Division 8 of Part XIC of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (now the Competition and Consumer Act 2010).
Transitional provisions provide that a party may still notify an access dispute to the ACCC in relation to a declared service until a final access determination is made in relation to the declared service. Final access determinations have been made for the fixed line declared services (ULLS, WLR, LSS, PSTN OA, PSTN TA and LCS) and public inquiries into making final access determinations are underway for the domestic transmission capacity service and the mobile terminating access service (See Access Determinations).
The ACCC released the current guide to the resolution of telecommunications access disputes in March 2004.
The guide was initially developed after the ACCC commissioned Phillips Fox and Resolve Advisors to conduct an independent review of its dispute resolution processes. The guide was revised in May 2003 to reflect the December 2002 amendments to the telecommunications specific provisions of the Trade Practices Act (now the Competition and Consumer Act 2010). The ACCC sought comments from interested parties regarding specific aspects of the May 2003 version of the guide. After considering submissions the ACCC published a new version of the guide in March 2004.
