Publication of interim determinations in telecommunications arbitrations

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has published interim determinations, together with the statements of reasons, in two telecommunications arbitrations regarding the supply of the Local Carriage Service* and Wholesale Line Rental Service** from Telstra Corporation Ltd to Primus Telecommunications Pty Ltd.

The ACCC has published the interim determinations and the statement of reasons, to encourage reasonable LCS and WLR prices to apply across the market.

The interim determinations, made in April 2007, provide that the LCS charge payable by Primus to Telstra is to be 17.92 cents per call for the period to 31 December 2007, except where the parties agree otherwise. For the WLR, the charge payable by Primus to Telstra is to be $23.12 per month for Home Line Part and $25.84 per month for Business Line Part for the period to 31 December 2007, except where the parties agree otherwise.

The ACCC consulted with the parties regarding publication of the interim determinations and statements of reasons, as required by the Act. The ACCC has considered the parties' submissions and has decided to publish the interim determinations and statements of reasons.

The ACCC will now progress a final determination in this matter.

Given that the legislation contemplates that arbitrations be otherwise conducted in private, the ACCC will not be making any further public comment at this stage.

The interim determinations and statements of reasons and the public register of determinations are available on the ACCC's website.

* The LCS is a service for the carriage of telephone calls from customer equipment at an end-user's premises to separately located customer equipment of an end-user in the same standard zone. However, the LCS does not include services where the supply of the LCS originates from an exchange located within a Central Business District Area of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide or Perth and terminates within the standard zone which encompasses the originating exchange.

** The WLR is an access service which allows an end-user to connect to a carrier or carriage service provider's public switched telephone network, and provides the end-user with the ability to make and receive any 3.1khz bandwidth calls (subject to any conditions that might apply to particular types of calls), including, but not limited to, local calls, national and international long distance calls and a telephone number.

Background

The ACCC is vested with arbitration powers enabling it to make directions and 'do all things necessary for the speedy hearing and determination of an access dispute'. For the ACCC to engage in arbitration, an access seeker and/or an access provider must notify the ACCC of an access dispute. The ACCC may arbitrate an access dispute only where:

• a declared service is supplied or proposed to be supplied by a carrier or carriage service provider
• one or more standard access obligations apply or will apply to the carrier or carriage provider in relation to the declared service, and
• an access seeker is unable to agree with the carrier or carriage service provider regarding the terms and conditions on which the carrier or carriage service provider is to comply with the standard access obligations.

Where a dispute cannot be resolved after private negotiations, mediation and/or conciliation, either of the access parties may refer the matter to the ACCC. Arbitration by the ACCC would be considered a final solution for the parties in dispute. Where the ACCC is notified of an access dispute the ACCC must determine the matter, unless it decides to terminate the arbitration or the notification is otherwise withdrawn.