Australia: Government wants ACCC to revisit Telstra wholesale pricing

A federal government department has come out against a draft decision from the competition watchdog for a sharp decrease in the regulated price rivals pay for accessing Telstra’s fixed copper network.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, on June 29, made a draft decision for a one-off 9.6 per cent decrease in wholesale prices for fixed line services for a four-year period between October 1, 2015, and June 30 2019.

The ACCC had originally mooted a 0.7 per cent decrease in March, but after being provided with further information from Telstra decided on a large reduction.

ACCC chairman Rod Sims told Fairfax following the decision that outstanding issues that weren’t finalised at the time of the earlier decision resulted in large change.

In a letter from Department of Communications to watchdog boss Mr Sims, secretary Drew Clarke argued that “the ACCC’s proposed approach to dealing with assets that will become redundant or are under-utilised as a result of NBN migration does not allow appropriate recovery of costs incurred in supplying regulated fixed line services”.

Full content: The Sydney Morning Herald

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