ACCC begins public consultation on Telstra's second transmission capacity exemption applications
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today issued a discussion paper on Telstra's applications for exemption from standard access obligations in respect to the domestic transmission capacity service in specified CBD, metropolitan and regional exchange service areas for inter-exchange and tail-end transmission capacity.
Telstra has sought exemptions in a number of exchange service areas, arguing that the supply of inter-exchange and tail-end transmission services in the nominated exchange service areas is competitive and that regulation of these services is no longer necessary.
Under the Trade Practices Act 1974, the ACCC must decide within six months whether granting Telstra the exemptions from its standard access obligations in the specified exchange service areas would be in the long-term interests of end users.
As part of assessing the exemption applications, the ACCC is inviting interested parties to respond to issues raised in the discussion paper, which will be available from the ACCC website, www.accc.gov.au. The ACCC will consider submissions lodged with the ACCC by 14 March 2008.
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 one kilometre or less from the GPO of a regional centre for a given capital-regional route) be exempted from declaration.
Telstra also applied for exemptions from standard access obligations in respect to the domestic transmission capacity service for 20 capital regional routes in August 2007. The ACCC is currently considering this application.
The ACCC will examine Telstra's exemption applications in light of the submissions received in response to the discussion papers.
