The Australian Competition and Consumer Comission issued a statement yesterday outlining an objection to the reported Telstra charge, but Telstra denies it ever planned to charge AU$30.
-It's absolutely wrong," Telstra public affairs manager Tim Scott said. -At this stage, we're looking at significantly less than that."
An ACCC spokesperson admitted the objection yesterday was speculative and based entirely on numerous media reports outlining the charge.
Nevertheless, Scott said Telstra was permitted by regulations laid down by the watchdog to charge fees designed to -recoup costs" associated with investment in mobile number portability.
Mobile number portability, which comes into effect on September 25, allows users to keep their mobile phone number when changing networks. Telstra's nearest competitor, Cable & Wireless Optus, announced this week it would not charge mobile customers for defecting to other networks.
Scott said Telstra had invested -tens of millions of dollars" into preparations for mobile number portability, but would not seek to reclaim that money purely in network-defection fees.
The telco would hold discussions with the ACCC and hoped to resolve the matter by the end of this week, he said.
The ACCC recently revoked its objection to hiked-up Telstra line rental charges - a move seen by many to quash consumer confidence in the commission's influence.
However, a commission spokesperson said the ACCC had a -very limited role" in controlling line rental prices because the government body was only allowed to review prices charged to the lowest paying 10 percent of line renting customers.
Telstra seems to think that it is the publics fault that Telstra doesn't enyoy a good reputation.