ACCC and ACMA to work together on industry data collection

The Australian Communications and Media Authority and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission have agreed to work together to streamline and coordinate industry data collection practices.

The two agencies will identify overlaps in industry data requests, develop proposals for sharing data and explore opportunities for joint reporting.

‘Both ACMA and the ACCC have needs to directly source data from industry in order to fulfil their statutory obligations and to monitor and report on industry performance,’ Mr Chris Chapman, ACMA Chairman, said.

‘Both agencies also have an obligation to inform the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts and parliament on communications issues. However, the Telecommunications Act makes it clear that doing so should not impose undue financial or administrative burdens on industry,’ he said.

‘Over time, there have been some areas where both agencies have been requesting similar information from industry and we are moving to reduce that overlap wherever possible,’ ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said.

‘It is imperative that industry cooperates by allowing full and generally applicable consent for the ACCC and ACMA to share broad categories of information they collect from industry. Making this arrangement work relies not just on the regulators but also the industry.’

Both ACMA and the ACCC will initiate discussions with industry on ways to streamline industry information requests.

As part of this new collaborative process, ACMA and the ACCC are proposing to produce an inaugural  joint report on communications infrastructure that will focus on the location of infrastructure and the state of the market for telecommunications services.

The joint report is designed to leverage off the expertise of both agencies and is intended to assist the assessment of regional service adequacy by the Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee, to be convened in 2008. The review committee forms part of the Government's future-proofing arrangements for regional telecommunications services.

Background

The Australian Communications and Media Authority and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission have established a joint working group to:

• identify data holdings of interest to both agencies;
• develop proposals for coordinating data requests;
• develop proposals for access to (each organisation's) data; and
• develop proposals for joint reporting on issues of mutual interest to both agencies.

The ACCC and ACMA have a mutual interest in data on fixed, mobile and broadband telecommunications services particularly about take-up, bundling and market/price information.

Access to shared data will not only reduce the potential for duplicate industry data requests but also improve the research capabilities of both organisations.
A joint infrastructure report has been proposed as a pilot project to demonstrate the benefits of working closely together on some issues. It follows the release of reports about infrastructure last year by the ACCC and ACMA.

It is intended that the exercise will allow each organisation to focus on its areas of strength (the availability of services in the case of ACMA and market information in the case of the ACCC) with complementary reporting from the other organisation. The report should also position each organisation for reporting on infrastructure issues to the Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee which is expected to be convened in early 2008.

The initiative is consistent with the government’s response to the Banks report, which seeks to reduce red-tape on industry'