Telcos called to Alston forum on network access
Everybody on board... Senator Alston wants full speed ahead of the Federal election. Photo: Erin Jonasson
By Anne Davies
The chief executives of Australia's major telecommunications companies have been summoned to a special industry forum to discuss urgent amendments to the laws governing access to each other's networks.
The need for amendments to the powers of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission was raised by the Minister for Communications, Senator Richard Alston, in an industry speech last week.
He said the five years it would take to open up access to Telstra's public switched telephone network (PSTN) was unacceptable, and he wanted to speed up the process.
Senator Alston flagged a number of changes including allowing multilateral arbitrations of access disputes, allowing the ACCC to use information it had gathered more freely, and even doing away with appeals to the Australian Competition Tribunal. He has now followed up with a letter to a number of chief executives, including Mr Chris Anderson of Cable & Wireless Optus, Dr Ziggy Switkowski of Telstra and Mr David Bedford of AAPT, inviting them to attend a round-table discussion in Sydney on Monday, May 30.
The letter says the forum is "to discuss possible amendments to streamline the telecommunications access regime" in the Trade Practices Act.
The latest move is likely to infuriate Telstra, whose relations with the Federal Government have taken a nosedive in recent weeks. Telstra has argued strongly that the Government should wait for the report of the Productivity Commission in September. The Commission is reviewing, at the Government's behest, the very sections of the legislation Senator Alston now wants to amend.
After Senator Alston's speech, Telstra had believed he had backed off urgent legislation.
The move to convene a meeting, however, shows Senator Alston is serious about overhauling the access regime ahead of the Federal election. While a spokesman for the Minister refused to confirm or deny the meeting had been convened, he said that the delays in the process for seeking access to each other's networks had been cited by virtually all carriers including Telstra as the most serious problem in the industry. "This is about streamlining disputes and arbitration of disputes to ensure the best possible outcome for consumers."
The move is likely, however, to receive support from Cable&Wireless Optus, and AAPT's director of regulatory, Mr David Havyatt said: "It's certainly true that the majority of comments [to the Productivity Commission] have focused on difficulties in the arbitration process and it is appropriate for government to look at action in this regard". Only Vodafone appears to be supporting Telstra's stance for greater deregulation. It has argued for an end to industry specific regulation, particularly in the mobiles market which it says is now highly competitive.
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