ACCC publishes exemption application from Telstra for the domestic transmission capacity service

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today published Telstra's exemption applications made in relation to its supply of the domestic transmission capacity service (DCTS) for:

• tail-end and inter-exchange DTCS in CBD areas of each capital city
• inter-exchange transmission in metropolitan areas and certain regional centres for DTCS
• tail-end transmission in metropolitan areas and certain regional centres for DTCS up to 2 Mbps only.

Under the Trade Practices Act 1974, the ACCC must not make an order granting an exemption unless it is satisfied that the exemption will promote the long-term interests of end users.

A copy of the exemption application is available from the ACCC's website. Telstra also submitted confidential supporting material including a submission, witness statements and reports by CRA and Market Clarity. The ACCC has requested Telstra to supply public versions of all supporting material and will publish the additional material on its website once these have been received.

The ACCC will ensure interested parties have reasonable access to Telstra's confidential submissions, to allow adequate examination and comment on the applications. A confidentiality undertaking for interested parties to sign for access to the confidential submissions will shortly be provided on the website.

The ACCC will shortly issue a discussion paper and set a time limit for submissions on the exemption applications by interested parties. The ACCC invites submissions on any aspect of the exemptions.

Telstra has previously submitted an exemption application in relation to its supply of the DCTS on 24 August 2007 for 20 capital-regional routes. The ACCC released a discussion paper on 19 October 2007 and received submissions. A draft decision will follow.

Background

The domestic transmission capacity service is a generic service that can be used for the carriage of voice, data or other communications using wideband or broadband carriage. The service was declared in June 1997 and varied in November 1998, May 2001 and April 2004.

Following the ACCC's decision to regulate a service under Part XIC, standard access obligations exist for any carriers or carriage service provider providing that service, whether to themselves or to other persons. The obligations include the requirement that the regulated service must be provided to service providers, along with specified ancillary services, on request.

A carrier can apply to the ACCC for a written order exempting it from any, or all, of the standard access obligations that apply to a regulated service. In deciding whether to make an order, or not, the ACCC must consider whether it will promote the long-term interests of end-users of the carriage services, or services provided by means of carriage services.

In its 2004 transmission capacity inquiry, the ACCC proposed that routes which have at least three optical fibre suppliers either serving these regional centres or in very close proximity (within 1km or less from the GPO of a regional centre for a given capital-regional route) be exempted from declaration.