The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today issued, for public consultation, a discussion paper canvassing issues and proposals for the determination of key performance indicators (KPIs) measuring the supply of certain services by Telstra to itself and its wholesale customers.
"The development of effective KPIs is one of the cornerstone initiatives of the Government’s recent legislation to enhance the accounting separation of Telstra", ACCC Commissioner for telecommunications, Mr Ross Jones, said today.
"The KPIs will focus on comparing the actual performance of Telstra in supplying services to itself as against its wholesale customers in relation to certain non-price terms and conditions (NPTCs) of supply, such as faults management and provisioning of services. This is intended to provide an additional level of transparency and accountability on Telstra to ensure it is competing fairly".
The KPI initiative is being introduced under clause 6 of the draft Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (Accounting Separation – Telstra Corporation Limited) Direction (No. 1) 2003, which was released for public consultation on 19 March 2003. The discussion paper follows on consultations with Telstra on various practical options for the production of meaningful KPIs, from Telstra's information and data systems, on Telstra's treatment of its retail and wholesale customers.
"Although the Ministerial Direction has not been finalised, it was felt that the ACCC should canvass the views of interested parties on this issue as soon as possible, given the tight implementation timeframes for both Telstra and the ACCC", Mr Jones said. The draft Ministerial Direction will require Telstra to provide its first KPI report by the end of November 2003 and for the ACCC to disclose this report and an assessment of its content by the end of December 2003.
"The discussion paper is an important first step to ensuring the production of effective KPIs on Telstra's performance that can give industry, government and the public additional understanding and certainty of how Telstra is operating".