- 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(desc) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Superfast broadband access service final access determination inquiry 2016 | Communications | Access determination |
Finalised
26 May 2017 |
On 29 July 2016, the ACCC began a public inquiry to make a final access determination for the superfast broadband access service (SBAS) under section 152BC of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. This followed the release of the ACCC’s decision to declare the SBAS on 29 July 2016. |
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| Fixed line services declaration inquiry 2018 | Communications | Access declaration |
Finalised
26 November 2018 |
On 31 August 2018, the ACCC released a public consultation paper and position paper for the fixed line telecommunications services declaration inquiry. |
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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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| Fixed line services FAD inquiry 2018 | Communications | Access determination |
Finalised
31 March 2019 |
On 12 December 2018, the ACCC commenced a combined public inquiry into making final access determinations (FADs) for the six fixed line telecommunications services and the wholesale ADSL service. |
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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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| LBAS & SBAS declarations inquiry 2020 | Communications | Access declaration |
Finalised
19 July 2021 |
The ACCC has concluded its public inquiry into regulation of the superfast broadband access service (SBAS) and the local bitstream access service (LBAS). |
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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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| Local number portability review & pricing principles | Communications | Guideline |
Finalised
|
The ACCC has outlined a number of pricing principles guidelines to refer to if required to arbitrate a number portability dispute. |
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| Telstra exemption application: Optus cable network areas 2007 | Communications | Review |
Finalised
2007 |
On 11 November 2008, the ACCC issued a final decision rejecting Telstra's exemption application relating to the Optus HFC network |
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| Unconditioned Local Loop Service pricing principles & indicative prices 2008-09 | Communications | Review |
Finalised
2009 |
In November 2007, as part of the ACCC's strategic review of the regulation of fixed services, the ACCC issued an Unconditioned Local Loop Service (ULLS) pricing principles determination. The final report was released on 4 June 2008. |
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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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| Local carriage service & wholesale line rental pricing principles & indicative prices 2008-09 | Communications | Price determination |
Finalised
2009 |
The ACCC has taken the submissions into account in developing the final pricing principles and indicative prices. The final report was released on 6 August 2008. |
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| Telstra - Unconditioned local loop service & line sharing service undertaking 2004 | Communications | Access undertaking |
Finalised
December 2004 |
In December 2004 Telstra lodged unconditioned local loop service (ULLS) and line sharing service (LSS) undertakings. The undertakings set out how Telstra proposes to meet its standard access obligations to supply these services. The ACCC released its final decision on Telstra's LSS connection and disconnection charge undertaking in April 2006. |
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| Unconditioned Local Loop Service pricing principles 2007 | Communications | Price determination |
Finalised
2007 |
The LSS pricing principles and indicative prices were published as part of the ACCC's LSS declaration review. That review was finalised in October 2007. The ULLS pricing principles were issued separately in November 2007. |
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