From the ACCC: The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has announced that it has completed its inquiry to set terms and conditions for the wholesale ADSL service and published a Final Access Determination (FAD).
Retailers utilise Telstra’s copper network to provide ADSL broadband internet to customers. The FAD lays out the price and non-price terms for the wholesale ADSL service. This pricing will apply until 30 June 2014. Under the FAD, wholesale ADSL prices will decrease by around 15 per cent compared to the commercial prices that were being charged (on average) prior to the regulation of the service in February 2012.
ACCC Chairman Rod Sims made the following comments on the FAD:
“The ACCC regulates wholesale ADSL services to help ensure consumers and businesses have a choice in the provision broadband services. The wholesale price set in the Final Access Determination provides certainty to industry participants, which in turn benefits customers by promoting competition and allowing a range of broadband services to be offered over Telstra’s copper network.”
The FAD is limited by teh ACCC to Telstra. It is not limited it to certain geographic regions. The FAD retains Telstra’s existing points of interconnection for the wholesale ADSL service. A voice service will still need to be provided on a copper line where there is a wholesale ADSL service.
Read more from the ACCC here.