Competition continues to drive broadband investment

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is focusing on ensuring there are minimum impediments for firms wanting to invest in broadband infrastructure, ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said today.* 

"Competition continues to drive investment, either through the upgrade of existing wireless networks….or in the continuing installation of DSLAMS in exchanges, where over the past year the number of unbundled loops has roughly doubled.

"Competition will be essential to delivering benefits to telecommunications users in the future.

"Clearly there will be challenges in relation to implementing any upgrades to the existing network, and just as clearly, industry players, regulators and Governments are wrestling with this all over the world, not just here in Australia. Access, service specification, appropriate pricing and ensuring a smooth migration from current ULLS [unconditioned local loop service] and LSS [line sharing service] are key issues.

"But as the new Government prepares its plans for a National Broadband Network….the ACCC is continuing to go about its business.

"One of the areas we are currently focused on is ensuring there are minimal impediments to firms being able to make investments.

"Other issues are also on the radar. For example, there may be real physical impediments that mean competitors cannot be provided access to an exchange or group of exchanges, such that they cannot install DSLAMs to access the ULLS or LSS," he said. "If so, perhaps there is little the regulator can do.

"Alternatively, there may be what I call 'artificial' constraints – where there are claimed impediments to competitors accessing the ULLS and LSS, but this isn't actually the case. In these cases, there may be regulatory remedies that could be pursued.

"The ACCC is well aware of industry concerns and is currently working with parties to try and obtain the relevant facts to determine if impediments are real or artificial.

"If the ACCC has the appropriate evidence to establish that there may be competition issues, the ACCC will consider what action to take and what are the best tools to deal with these impediments.

"The ACCC has a number of regulatory options available to it. These include enforcing compliance with either the anti-competitive conduct provisions of Part XIB, or access obligations under Part XIC, as well as measures such as record-keeping rules, which can increase transparency and thereby increase investment certainty.

"The ACCC also sees real benefits in industry processes both aiding this transparency, and addressing some other issues that might arise.

"Ensuring seamless processes behind the scenes – for example, in interconnection, or allowing customers to switch providers with ease - is an important element to ensuring end-users receive the level of service one would expect in a modern, technology driven sector."

*Mr Samuel was addressing the Australian Telecommunications Users Group 2008 Annual Conference in Sydney. A copy of the speech will be available on the ACCC website, under News centre and speeches.