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 Status
Telstra core services access undertaking Communications Access undertaking Finalised
2003

In December 2004 the ACCC released a final decision reiterating its draft views on LCS and PSTN.

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.

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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).

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Bundling in telecommunications markets Communications Information paper Historical
2003

In August 2003 the ACCC released an information paper on bundling in the telecommunications industry.

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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.

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.

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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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Telstra - PSTN undertaking 1999 Communications Access undertaking Finalised
1999

Following consultation and analysis the undertaking was rejected and a final report outlining the decision was issued in July 2000.

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Telstra's AMPS/GSM/PSTN undertaking - November 1997 Communications Access undertaking Finalised

In November 1997 Telstra lodged three undertakings with the ACCC specifying the terms and conditions upon which Telstra proposed to meet its standard access obligations to supply PSTN, GSM (digital mobile) and AMPS (analogue mobile) origination and termination services.

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