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(desc) Industry Type Status
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.

View project
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.

View project
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
LBAS Final Access Determination Inquiry 2015 Communications Access determination Finalised
26 May 2017

On 7 April 2015, the ACCC commenced an access determination inquiry in relation to the Local Bitstream Access Service (LBAS) as required under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (the CCA).

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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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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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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Local carriage service access exemption Communications Access exemption Finalised
2002

In July 2002 the ACCC granted two separate exemptions in response to an application from Telstra for exemption from its obligations to supply the local carriage service to its competitors in CBD areas of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbance, Adelaide and Perth.

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Local carriage services pricing principles 2002 Communications Price determination Finalised
2002

The revised final report issued in April 2002 confirms the approach and includes indicative prices.

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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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Local services review 2005 Communications Access declaration Finalised
2005

The ACCC released its final indicative prices in November 2006.

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LSS declaration inquiry 2007 Communications Service declaration Finalised

The ACCC's strategic review commenced in December 2005 as an inquiry to examine the future regulation of certain fixed network services. In April 2007, the ACCC began a second stage of the review with the release of a position paper outlining a framework for the review of existing fixed services regulation and the principles that will guide future regulatory decisions.

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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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Model price terms and conditions Communications Price determination Finalised

The ACCC held a consultation process about model price terms and conditions for the public switched telephone network (PSTN), unconditioned local loop service (ULLS) and local carriage service (LCS).

View project

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