The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has announced a draft decision to remove its own regulatory control from Telstra in regards to local call pricing in the Central Business Districts of all major capital cities in Australia.
The ACCC's -draft" decision to remove current regulation on Telstra is based on an increase in the amount of carriers which are supplying wholesale local calls in the CBD's of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
-A whole lot of companies have installed their own infrastructure in the cities, which are largely serving big business," ACCC commissioner Rod Shogren said.
-The draft decision indicates that the ACCC will no longer regulate where regulation is not necessary," he said.
In other words, if a carrier has a dispute over local call pricing it will no longer be able to go to the ACCC for arbitration.
-If there is more choice [for consumers], this will dictate what price Telstra can provide local calls at," Shogren said.
Shorgren said that the decision would only apply to these specified areas as the majority of consumers are business customers.
Optus, however, is strongly against the ACCC's proposal, describing it as "premature".
"The ACCC's decision if implemented would mean Telstra would face no legal requirement to sell wholesale local call services to its competitors....which could significantly reduce the potential to offer competitive services especially in [these] areas where competitors do not have their own infrastructure," an Optus spokesperson told ZDNet Australia.
The ACCC said it is currently waiting for official submissions from the country's telecommunications carriers before it makes a decision on the proposal.
More regulation is needed not less.
Broadband in Australia is slipping more and more behind compared to other first world countries, thanks to Telstra's blackmail business tactics.