Mitchell Bingemann | August 13, 2008
A COALITION of Telstra's competitors have sent a letter to the Federal Communications Minister and the competition watchdog demanding the need for legislative intervention to curb Telstra's 'gaming' of the regulatory process.
In a letter penned by David Forman, executive director of the Competitive Carrier’s Coalition, it is claimed that Telstra has amended its Unconditioned Local Loop Service pricing model without first notifying any of its wholesale customers.The alleged amendments were distributed to only a handful of Telstra’s wholesale customers a day before submissions for a new pricing model were due to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on August 12.
“It means that there is no opportunity for the CCC or other interested parties to consider this version before submissions close,” wrote Mr Forman in an open letter to the ACCC.
The CCC is now calling on the ACCC to reject Telstra’s changes to its pricing model, and for Communications Minister Stephen Conroy to consider legislative action aimed at removing it from the access process entirely.
“The CCC submits that this is a cynical exercise in regulatory gaming by Telstra that is so blatant that it demands that the Government finally step in,” reads the letter to Senator Conroy.
“The CCC has in the past argued that there were two courses of action open to the Government to immediately close this gaming opportunity. The first would be to allow the Commission to amend an undertaking into a form that it found acceptable. The second would be to remove the undertakings provision from telecommunications altogether.”
The CCC also rejected an extension of the ACCC’s submissions deadline on the basis that the involved parties could no longer have confidence in Telstra’s undertakings.
“The CCC submits that interested parties can have no confidence that the Telstra is engaged in anything other than a sham designed to distract resources and attention of the industry and the regulator,” reads the letter to the ACCC.
“The CCC has long argued that Telstra’s motivation in presenting serial undertakings to the Commission has been directed at gaming regulatory processes rather than seeking to legitimately provide prices, terms and conditions that can resolve disputation in the industry.”
Telstra did not respond to requests for comment.
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5 Comment(s)
A governments duty is to their citizens, CEO's to their shareholders. For Australia to be competitive for the future we need a broadband infrastructre that is world class. So lets take some of the 70Bn we have earned from Telstra and build a high speed network designed for Australians. Telstra et al can either use this network or continue to build out their own - albeit slowly and designed to maximise shareholder return. All thoughts of controlling Telstra via a weak regulatory authority are moot and thus lets "get over it" and move to the next stage with or without Telstra.
Just as an observation to MrIT, "the infrastructure (which was paid for by taxpayers)" comment seems to overlook the fact that the Federal Government, on behalf of all taxpayers, has been recompensed to the tune of nearly $70Bn in 3 tranches of Telstra share sales, and sundry billions in dividend payments for shares still held in the "Future Fund". So the rightful owner of any and all Telstra infrastructure would appear to be their shareholders!
Its insane to belive that Telstra can exist simultaneously as a wholesaler and retailer. Sol cant serve two masters, and his first duty is to the shareholders, so obviously he will seek to sabotage the efforts of competitors to retain the more profitable retail business.
The government should take the infrastructure (which was paid for by taxpayers) out of private hands and let telstra compete as a retail only telco on a level playing field.
Thats what should have been done when they privatised it and its the only way it will ever work.
The government sold Telstra, get over it. If anyone else wants to build a network and sell wholesale, then go for it. I bet that anyone who complains about so called Telstra monopoly still uses Microsoft Windows operating systems.
Just what does Telstra have to do before the Government steps in a fixes the monopoly behaviour Telstra relies on for profits at the expsense of real competition for consumers?
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