Telecommunications draft principles & prices, access terms issued

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today released for consultation an amended pricing principles determination for the unconditioned local loop service (ULLS*) and an accompanying report.

The Draft Pricing Principles for the Unconditioned Local Loop Service Amendment Determination 2008 (No.1) amends the Pricing Principles for the Unconditioned Local Loop Service that was made by the ACCC in November 2007. The amended Determination now includes indicative prices for the ULLS to apply through to July 2009.

The Draft Pricing Principles for the Unconditioned Local Loop Service Amendment Determination 2008 (No.1) and the accompanying report will be available on the ACCC's website.  Interested parties are invited to make submissions by 5 p.m. Wednesday 14 May 2008.

The ACCC has also released a draft pricing principles determination and indicative prices for the wholesale line rental service (WLR) and local carriage service (LCS**). The draft pricing principles and indicative prices are relevant for the period 1 January 2008 to 31 July 2009, the date at which the declarations are due to expire.

The Draft pricing principles and indicative prices for LCS & WLR and the accompanying report will be available on the ACCC's website. Interested parties are invited to make submissions by 5 p.m. Wednesday 14 May 2008.

Further, the ACCC has published a final determination made in the arbitration of a dispute over access to the ULLS.  The decision was made on 20 March 2008 and was published following a compulsory legislative consultation period on publication.

The ULLS final determination specifies the monthly rental, connection and disconnection charges for which Telstra supplies the ULLS to PowerTel.  This follows the parties being unable to agree on these ULLS terms and PowerTel notifying a dispute for ACCC arbitration.

The ACCC has specified a ULLS rental charge of $14.30 per service per month in metropolitan band 2 for 2007-08, and also specified charges for which ULLS services are connected or disconnected, either individually or as part of a ‘managed network migration’ of bulk ADSL services to the ULLS.  The ULLS charges specified in the determination depend on the relevant year and geographic band for the service.

Telstra had proposed an ULLS rental charge of $30 per service per month in all bands. Both the ACCC (August 2006) and the Australian Competition Tribunal (May 2007) were not satisfied that such a price was reasonable. Despite these rulings, Telstra had continued to require access seekers to pay $30 per month.

Another two disputes, notified by XYZed and Request, were resolved in a manner consistent with and on the same date as the PowerTel determination. These follow earlier ULLS determinations made in December 2007 and January 2008.

The charges result from applying the ACCC's longstanding pricing principles for the ULLS and the ruling of the Australian Competition Tribunal on ULLS pricing in May 2007.

The final determinations and accompanying statements of reasons will be available on the ACCC's website.

The ACCC continues to arbitrate several ULLS access disputes.

Background

*The ULLS allows telecommunications service providers to gain the use of the copper cables between end users and the telephone exchange. Service providers can use the ULLS in conjunction with their own equipment in telephone exchanges to provide a range of telecommunications services, including traditional voice services and broadband internet access.

**The LCS is a service for the supply of an end-to-end voice grade carriage service between two points within a standard zone. It allows access seekers to resell local calls to end-users. WLR allows access seekers to resell the basic line rental that allows an end-user to connect to the traditional voice network, make and receive voice calls and have a telephone number.

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 as 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.

The PowerTel/Telstra ULLS final determination specifies the following prices to apply from 20 January 2006 until 30 June 2008:

ULLS monthly charge:

ULLS connections made outside of a managed network migration:

• where an order for an MNN is cancelled a 'standard cancellation' charge of $135.60 per cancelled MNM and, if applicable, a further 'pre-jumpering' charge of $20 per relevant cancelled service applies
• where an MNM was forecast to involve more than 20 services, and the number of services to be connected is revised down within 20 business days of the prospective date of the MNM, if applicable, a 'pre-jumpering' charge of $20 per relevant cancelled service applies.