The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today issued its seventeenth imputation testing and non-price terms and conditions report under the enhanced accounting separation regime for Telstra. The report presents data for the quarter ending 30 September 2007.
The report tests whether there is systematic discrimination in the price or non-price terms offered to Telstra retail and wholesale customers. It is not intended to detect all forms of potentially anti-competitive conduct.
This report presents an imputation analysis comparing the retail price charged by Telstra with the prices of three core* telecommunications access services. The reported imputation analysis is designed to indicate whether margins are sufficient to allow efficient firms to compete against Telstra in the retail market.
The results for fixed-line voice services show that, although imputed margins for some services or customer segments have deteriorated and others improved, imputed margins across the bundle of services remained relatively constant in the September quarter 2007.
The results for services supplied over the unconditioned local loop core service (ULLS) indicate that imputed margins have improved in the quarter, although they remain negative except when the ULLS is used to supply a bundle of ADSL and voice services to business customers.
The report also presents key performance indicators that compare Telstra's customer service performance in meeting certain non-price terms and conditions for its wholesale and retail fixed-line telephony and ADSL customers. The report does not indicate that material discrimination against wholesale customers occurred in the September 2007 quarter.
The report will be available on the ACCC website.
*The three core access services are the local carriage service, the PSTN originating and terminating access service, and the unconditioned local loop services (ULLS). The ULLS allow a competitor to lease the use of a customer's line to supply any combination of access, voice, ADSL or other data services.