ACCC reviews transmission declaration and issues draft report

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today issued its draft declaration report for the domestic transmission capacity service (DTCS).

In the draft report, the ACCC proposes to vary the current declaration to exclude the capital-regional transmission routes and exchange service areas that the ACCC previously determined should be exempt in its final decision on Telstra's transmission exemption applications in November 2008.

The ACCC also proposes to extend the varied declaration for five years. The ACCC considers that extending the varied declaration will promote regulatory certainty for access seekers and access providers.

The domestic transmission capacity service is a generic service 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.

Subject to the Trade Practices Act 1974, the standard access obligations (SAOs) require that an access provider, if requested by a service provider, must supply the declared service, along with specified ancillary services.

Today's draft report will be available on the ACCC website. Interested parties are invited to submit comments on the draft DTCS report by 4 March 2009.

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