Samuel introduced his comments by assuring his audience that "the aim of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is not to make life tough for Telstra," and emphasised the ACCC's role in trying to develop "a truly competitive environment in all aspects of telecommunications".
Although the ACCC considers the Telstra outcome a "reasonable resolution of the issues that gave rise to the Competition Notice," said Samuel, "the Commission remains concerned at some weaknesses in the Competition Notice process revealed by this dispute. In part, the weaknesses revealed were a direct result of the reluctance of many of those who were complaining loudest about Telstra's conduct to respond quickly when we asked for information and more particularly court admissible evidence. In this regard, the best jockeys were in the stands."
In addition, Samuel raised concern about the imprecision of the imputation testing process to establish the appropriate commercial relationship between Telstra's wholesale and retail arms. "The Commission is working urgently to publish a set of principles as an adjunct to the notification process to give all participants in the market further guidance on its approach to price squeeze allegations," said Samuel.
Samuel noted that "questions remain regarding the extent to which the regime acted as an incentive for Telstra to resolve the Competition Notice in a timely fashion." Although the ACCC considers that the process went "70 or 80 percent of the way towards a fully satisfactory outcome," the Commission said that the Competition Notice arrangements "can be improved to get more timely outcomes", a goal which it is currently working towards.
Ironically given the vocal comments made by Internet service providers since Telstra's initial price change, Samuel also said that Telstra did not benefit directly from its anti-competitive conduct. "Information available to the Commission through its Broadband Snapshot [publication]," said Samuel, "suggests that there was no significant long-term increase in Telstra's retail market share." The report instead suggested that the growth in DSL markets since the Competition Notice was issued has been shared between Telstra and its wholesale competitors.
Everyone is missing the point. RIMs or pair gain is the real issue here.
The politicians don't seem to be focussing on this huge issue....