Non-NBN fixed line services access regulation

  • 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:

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:

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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(desc) Status
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.

View project
Fixed network & local services pricing principles & indicative prices 2006-2007 Communications Price determination Finalised
2006

The ACCC released its final indicative prices in November 2006. The indicative prices relate to the 2006 and 2007 calendar years.

View project
Unconditioned local loop services pricing principles 2002 Communications Price determination Finalised
2002

The ACCC declared the unconditioned local loop service (ULLS) in July 1999. In response to a discussion paper, submissions were received from several interested parties and these views were taken into account in developing the final report released in April 2002.

View project
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.

View project
Fixed line services declaration inquiry 2013 Communications Access declaration Finalised
17 April 2014

On 11 July 2013, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) commenced a combined public inquiry into the declaration of the fixed line services.

View project
Local Bitstream Access Service (LBAS) declaration Communications Access declaration Finalised
2012

On 22 February 2012, the ACCC made a decision to declare a layer 2 bitstream service, to be called the local bitstream access service (LBAS).

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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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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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Superfast broadband access service declaration inquiry Communications Access declaration Finalised
29 July 2016

On 11 September 2014, the ACCC commenced a declaration inquiry into whether a superfast broadband access service, such as the very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line (VDSL) service, should be regulated under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.

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Wholesale ADSL service declaration inquiry 2016 Communications Access declaration Finalised
14 October 2016

On 4 July 2016 the ACCC commenced a public inquiry into whether the wholesale asymmetrical digital subscriber line (ADSL) service should continue to be declared.

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Local services review 2005 Communications Access declaration Finalised
2005

The ACCC released its final indicative prices in November 2006.

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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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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).

View project

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