The industry's move follows the release by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission of two discussion papers it says are designed to enhance transparency and competition in the nation's telecommunications sector.
Both discussion papers attempt to increase the transparency of the accounting separation of Telstra. One discussion paper calls for comment on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which will measure the supply of certain services by Telstra to itself and to wholesale customers. The paper is the result of a direction from the Minister for Telecommunications, Senator Richard Alston.
These KPIs could include the times taken to repair faults and perform new installations, the availability and performance of access orders for services that can be completed by Telstra using available capacity and those that require additional infrastructure, and the percentage of calls accurately charged and billed by Telstra for certain services for its wholesale and retail customers.
The second discussion paper proposes changes to the Record Keeping Rules (RKR), currently set out in the ACCC's Regulatory Accounting Framework (RAF).
The ACCC is proposing new notification and public disclosure requirements for all carriers reporting under the RAF, and additional requirements concerning the auditing of the RAF reports for Telstra, and the way Telstra reports the operations of its subsidiary companies.
"These activities are aimed at ensuring a more robust, transparent and publicly accountable reporting framework which can give the public, the Government and the industry in general an increased knowledge and certainty about the state of competition in the sector," said ACCC Chairman, Professor Allan Fels, in a statement.
