On 5 March 2018 the ACCC commenced an inquiry into the Domestic Transmission Capacity Service (DTCS) including whether to extend, vary or revoke the DTCS declaration. The DTCS inquiry sought stakeholder views on a broad range of issues relevant to the transmission market.

On 5 December 2018 the ACCC published a draft report on the review of the declaration of the DTCS. The report proposed to vary and extend the declaration of the DTCS for a further five years.

On 19 December 2018 the ACCC issued binding rules of conduct (BROC) setting interim prices for wholesale transmission services to Christmas Island. The rules set temporary price terms for access to regulated DTCS provided over long-distance subsea cable infrastructure.

On 19 December 2018 the ACCC also announced the commencement of a public inquiry into varying the DTCS final access determination and the commencement of a separate inquiry into the making of a new DTCS final access determination to replace the existing final access determination once it expires on 31 December 2019.

The ACCC will run a combined public consultation process covering both inquiries and will release a discussion paper in early 2019.

On 29 March 2019 the ACCC concluded its inquiry into the review of the declaration for the DTCS and released a final report on the findings of the inquiry.

More information on the DTCS and the ACCC's regulation of the DTCS is available in our consumer guides.