Australia: ACCC to review telecommunication competition

The evolution of the communications sector has sparked an investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission into how changing consumer behaviours and the transition to the NBN will affect competition in the market.

The launch of the competition watchdog’s issues paper into the communications sector on Monday follows its report into Telstra and NBN Co’s commercial agreements last Friday, which signaled that the ACCC would continue monitoring Telstra.

“NBN Co and Telstra have said that one of the benefits of these commercial agreements is that it will facilitate a faster rollout of the NBN, which the ACCC acknowledges, but we also recognise that there are potential competition implications and the effect of these on end users is just as important,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims said at the time.

“The ACCC is pleased at the progress made to date in terms of these agreements, but there’s still work to do to address our remaining concerns. We will continue to monitor the relationship between NBN Co and Telstra, and ensure that Telstra’s contracts with NBN Co do not give it an advantage over its competitors in providing superfast broadband services over the NBN.”

Full Content: Financial Review

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