Discussion paper3 Dec 2009
The ACCC released a discussion paper reviewing the 1997 access pricing principles on 3 December 2009. The review was undertaken in recognition of the evolution of the telecommunications sector since 1997. Submissions to the discussion paper were due by 26 February 2010.
Previously the ACCC has been guided by its 1997 document Access Pricing Principles—Telecommunications: a guide (1997 Access Pricing Principles) when determining pricing principles and indicative prices for the declared fixed line services. More recently, the ACCC decided to review these guidelines due to increasing industry agreement that the pricing approach outlined in the 1997 access pricing principles was no longer the most appropriate method for setting access prices.
ACCC discussion paper
Submissions
Confidentiality agreement - Telstra
The ACCC reached an agreement with Telstra on an appropriate confidentiality regime. Parties wishing to gain access to the confidential information are required to provide confidentiality undertakings in favour of Telstra Corporation Limited.
Signed undertakings are to provided directly to Telstra's legal counsel Mr Sandy Flecknoe-Brown at sandy.flecknoe-brown@team.telstra.com or 02 8576 2745.
New pricing model
In early 2010 the ACCC engaged a consultant to develop a new pricing model to calculate access prices for fixed line telecommunications services. The ACCC released a redacted version of the new pricing model. The information redacted from the new pricing model was of the same nature as the information that was marked as commercial in confidence in the draft report. The confidential information in the model was replaced with dummy values highlighted in yellow.
Parties wishing to gain access to an unredacted version of the new pricing model are required to provide a confidentiality undertaking in favour of Telstra Corporation Limited.