Telstra discontinues appeal against Federal Court findings of misleading Next G coverage claims

Telstra has withdrawn its appeal against the Federal Court's December 2007 ruling that it engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct in relation to the coverage available on its Next G mobile network.

"Telstra's decision to discontinue its appeal proceedings brings a welcome end to this matter, and vindicates the ACCC's strong intervention to protect consumers from misleading marketing in the telecommunications industry," ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said today.

The ACCC brought proceedings against Telstra in September 2007, alleging that Telstra had engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct to the detriment of consumers. The illegal conduct included representations that the Next G mobile network had "coverage everywhere you need it" and that Next G customers would get the same or better coverage as they did on the CDMA network.

Telstra must now pay the costs of the ACCC occasioned by the appeal together with the costs of the ACCC's proceedings.

Background

On 19 December 2007, the Federal Court granted the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission declaratory relief and made injunctions permanently restraining Telstra from making any representation to the effect that:

• mobile coverage on the Next G mobile telephone network is always available to Next G customers everywhere the customer, from time to time, needs to use their mobile telephone
• a customer subscribing to the Next G mobile telephone network will receive the same or better coverage than is available currently on the CDMA network,

without disclosing that coverage on the Next G network depends in part on where the person is, what particular handset the person is using and whether that handset has an external antenna attached.