Telstra Corporation Limited has notified the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission of an access dispute with Optus Mobile Pty Limited and Optus Networks Pty Limited, under Part XIC of the Trade Practices Act 1974.
The dispute relates to the price paid by Telstra for the Domestic Mobile Terminating Access Service* supplied by Optus by means of its mobile networks, for 2006.
The ACCC has commenced the arbitration process for this access dispute. Given that the legislation contemplates that arbitrations be conducted in private, the ACCC will not be making any public comment at this stage.
*The Domestic Mobile Terminating Access Service is a wholesale input, used by providers of fixed-to-mobile and mobile-to-mobile calls, to allow their customers to call mobile phone users. It allows consumers (either fixed-line or mobile) to call mobile users connected to another network. The carrier whose customer initiates the call pays the carrier whose customer receives the call for the mobile terminating access service.
In this case, the dispute relates to the charges for carrying that portion of a call which terminates on Optus's mobile networks.