ACCC issues MTAS declaration final report

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has released the final report on its public inquiry into the declaration of the domestic mobile terminating access service (MTAS).

In its final report, the ACCC has decided to extend the existing MTAS declaration for a period of five years to 30 June 2014.  The report will be available on the ACCC website.

The MTAS is an essential wholesale input used by providers of calls from both fixed line and mobile networks to complete (terminate) calls to mobile subscribers connected to other networks.  Under current commercial arrangements, the network owner which originates a call to a mobile network will generally purchase the MTAS from the network owner which completes the call.

The ACCC has formed the view that mobile call termination remains an essential service and that extending the MTAS declaration for five years is in the long-term interest of end-users.

The ACCC considers that mobile network operators, regardless of their size, have exclusive control of access to end-users on their own network. This control gives mobile operators market power over the provision of calls to their networks such that they are subject to very weak competitive constraints when setting prices for the service.

The continued declaration of the MTAS will have a positive impact for consumers because it will continue to promote competition in the market for retail mobile services.