- The ACCC regulates a range of non-NBN fixed line wholesale telecommunications services.
- For the services we regulate, we determine the price and other terms of access for retail service providers.
What the ACCC does
- We decide the price and other terms for retail service providers to access the non-NBN fixed line services we regulate.
- We review the services periodically and decide whether regulation is necessary.
What the ACCC can't do
- We don’t set the prices or service standards of retail services for end users.
- We don’t control whether consumers have a choice of retail service providers.
What we do in regulating fixed line services
We regulate many non-NBN fixed line wholesale services
The ACCC regulates access to wholesale telecommunications services. As part of this role, we regulate:
- superfast broadband access services (SBAS) supplied by non-NBN networks
- a range of Telstra legacy fixed line wholesale access services, specifically the:
- unconditioned local loop service (ULLS)
- line sharing service (LSS)
- public switched telephone network originating access (PSTN OA) service
- public switched telephone network terminating access (PSTN TA) service
- wholesale line rental (WLR) service
- local carriage service (LCS)
- wholesale ADSL service.
We determine the price and non-price terms of access for retail service providers to access these services. We do this to ensure:
- retail service providers have access to monopoly telecommunications networks
- consumers can benefit from competition in the market.
We don’t control whether consumers have a choice of retail service providers.
We check that regulating the service remains necessary
The ACCC needs to periodically review the services we regulate.
We do this to check:
- whether regulation is still necessary
- that the price and non-price terms of access are suitable.
Our recent reviews of fixed line services are:
- Wholesale asymmetrical digital subscriber line (ADSL) service declaration inquiry 2021
- Superfast broadband access services (SBAS) final access determination inquiry 2021
- Local bitstream access service (LBAS) and superfast broadband access service (SBAS) declarations inquiry 2020
- Fixed line services declaration inquiry 2018
- Fixed line services final access determination inquiry 2018.
We run public inquiries on access decisions
We run a public inquiry when we are deciding whether:
- to declare a service for access regulation
- to extend, revoke, vary, allow to expire, or remake an existing service declaration before it expires.
See the Telecommunications access declarations we have made. Select ‘Communications’ in the Industry list and ‘Access declaration’ in Type.
After running a public inquiry, we make a final access decision for the service. See the Telecommunications access determinations we have made. Select ‘Communications’ in the Industry list and ‘Access determination’ in Type.
We set the rules for the supply of telecommunication services
We describe how we set rules for the supply of telecommunication services:
We no longer manage access disputes
Current legislation doesn’t include dispute provisions.
Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer Safeguards) Act 2010 removed access dispute provisions from the Trade Practices Act 1974 from 1 January 2011.
While changing to the new legislation, the Act allowed a party to notify the ACCC of an access dispute regarding a declared service. This could be done until we made a final access determination. Arbitration determinations published by the ACCC as part of these provisions are in the public register.
The legal basis of our functions
We do this work under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and the Telecommunication Act 1997.
Our role in running public inquiries on access decisions is under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.
Fixed line service projects
See a complete list of telecommunications and internet projects.
| Title | Industry | Type | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local Bitstream Access Service (LBAS) final access determination 2012 | Communications | Access determination |
Finalised
2012 |
On 3 October 2012, the ACCC made a final access determination (FAD) for the LBAS. A copy of the LBAS FAD is available on the public register of access determinations. |
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| Fixed line services variation inquiry 2012 | Communications | Access variation |
Finalised
2012 |
In accordance with clause 4.1B of the FADs, clause 4.1A of the FADs expired on 7 December 2012. |
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| Wholesale ADSL declaration inquiry 2012 | Communications | Access declaration |
Finalised
2012 |
On 16 December 2011 the ACCC commenced an inquiry into declaration of wholesale ADSL services under section 152AL of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (the Act). The ACCC issued a discussion paper inviting submissions on whether declaration of wholesale ADSL services would promote the long-term interests of end-users. On 14 February 2012 the ACCC decided to declare the wholesale ADSL service under section 152AL(3) of the Act. |
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| Geographic exemption variation inquiry 2011 | Communications | Access variation |
Finalised
2011 |
On 16 December 2011 the ACCC released a final decision to vary the final access determinations (FADs) to remove the exemption provisions for the WLR, LCS and PSTN OA declared fixed line services. |
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| Fixed line services final access determination (FAD) 2011 | Communications | Access determination |
Finalised
2011 |
On 20 July 2011 the ACCC made FADs for the declared fixed line services. The FADs are backdated to commence on 1 January 2011 and expire on 30 June 2014. |
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| Wholesale ADSL declaration inquiry 2010 | Communications | Access declaration |
Finalised
2011 |
In April 2011, following further consultation with industry participants, the ACCC decided not to commence a declaration inquiry. |
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| Access pricing principles for fixed line services review | Communications | Price determination |
Finalised
2010 |
Given the legislative changes under the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer Safeguards) Act 2010, the ACCC suspended the review of the access pricing principles for fixed line services. The ACCC continued to analyse submissions and new information received in response to the review of the access pricing principles. |
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| Fixed line wholesale services pricing review 2009-2010 | Communications | Review |
Finalised
2010 |
On 3 December 2009 the ACCC announced a fundamental review of the Access Pricing Principles for telecommunications services. As a result of the review, the ACCC decided to maintain the current pricing principles and indicative prices for fixed line services until 31 December 2010. |
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| WLR, LCS & PSTN OA class exemptions variation | Communications | Access exemption |
Finalised
2008 |
On 18 November 2009, the ACCC released a final decision to vary the class exemptions for the WLR, LCS and PSTN OA services. |
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| Australian Competition Tribunal orders in relation to WLR, LCS & PSTN OA service access exemption | Communications | Access exemption |
Finalised
2008 |
The exemptions provisions relating to the WLR, LCS and PSTN OA services have been removed from the relevant final access determinations as of 17 December 2011. The exemptions no longer apply in any Exchange Service Areas. |
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| Possible variation of the ULLS declaration 2007 | Communications | Access declaration |
Historical
May 2007 |
The ACCC's final view is that it is not satisfied that varying the ULLS service description at this time would promote the long-term interests of end users. |
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| Fixed network services declaration inquiry | Communications | Access declaration |
Finalised
2005 |
On 15 July 2009, the ACCC issued a final decision to extend the declaration of each of the six fixed-line services for a period of five years until 31 July 2014. |
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| Telstra - Unconditioned local loop service access undertaking 2008 | Communications | Access undertaking |
Finalised
2008 |
On 22 April 2009 the ACCC decided to reject the Undertaking. The ACCC released a final decision to reject this Telstra & ULLS Undertaking on 28 April 2009. |
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| Model non-price terms and conditions | Communications | Price determination |
Finalised
|
The ACCC held a consultation process about model non-price terms and conditions for the public switched telephone network (PSTN), unconditioned local loop service (ULLS) and local carriage service (LCS). |
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