The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today announced its final decision in relation to the Optus access undertaking to supply its Domestic GSM Terminating Access Service.
"The ACCC has rejected this undertaking because it considers the target price estimated by Optus is substantially above the cost of supplying this service", an ACCC Commissioner, Mr Ed Willett, said today. "Despite its further submissions on the draft decision to reject the undertaking, Optus has failed to address the ACCC's concerns regarding this overestimation.
"The ACCC continues to have a number of concerns with the theoretical underpinnings of the methodology employed by Optus's consultant, the application of this methodology, and also empirical concerns with some of the inputs used to generate the Optus estimate of 17 cents per minute for 2007".
Copies of the ACCC's final report and other documentation relevant to the access undertakings (including the undertakings, Optus's supporting submissions and other material) will be available on the ACCC website.
The ACCC currently has before it five access disputes in relation to Optus's supply of the mobile terminating access service, under the dispute resolution procedures in Division 8, Part XIC of the Trade Practices Act 1974. Had the ACCC accepted Optus’s undertaking, it would have been obliged to make determinations in those disputes that were consistent with the terms and conditions proposed in the undertaking. These arbitrations are continuing.