Under Part XIB, Division 11, s. 151CL(1) of the Trade Practices Act 1974, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is required to provide the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy with an annual report on competitive safeguards within the Australian telecommunications industry. This report (known as the Division 11 report), covering the financial year 2006–07 and ongoing actions immediately afterwards, is provided as an attachment below.
2006–07 saw the highest level of investment in telecommunications in the 10 years since the introduction of open competition. The period was also significant in terms of take-up of regulated unbundled services, with the number of unbundled lines increasing to over half a million by 30 June 2007. Increased investment has enabled access seekers to differentiate their downstream product offerings to compete more vigorously for retail customers. There is now a range of communications services available to consumers through an increasing number of access providers, over a range of different technology platforms, at competitive price points. As the industry continues to evolve, it is important that the benefits of competition are preserved.
Division 12 of Part XIB, s. 151CM (1) of the Trade Practices Act 1974 requires the ACCC to report each year to the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy on prices paid by Australian consumers for telecommunications services. This report (known as the Division 12 report) for the 2006–07 financial year is also provided as an attachment below.
The Division 12 report monitors prices consumers pay for PSTN (public switched telephone network) services and mobile telephony services. For PSTN services, it analyses prices paid by residential and business consumers for basic access service (or line rental) and for local, national long-distance, international and fixed-to-mobile calls. For mobile telephony services, this report covers prices paid by consumers for services on the global system for mobiles (GSM) and code division multiple access (CDMA) networks.
