Vodafone Hutchison, Telstra unite against consumer watchdog
The Age
Monday October 19, 2009
ONE of Telstra's largest competitors has lined up alongside it, backing its calls for the consumer watchdog to be kept on a tight leash under the proposed telecommunications regime.Vodafone Hutchison is the third-largest mobile phone carrier in Australia after Telstra and Optus, and, like Telstra, sells network access to smaller phone companies.The newly merged company has joined Telstra in arguing that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission should not be given the ultimate power to decide what Telstra's rivals should pay for access to its network.Under the proposed legislation Telstra's retail and wholesale networks will be separated. But the Federal Government has also taken the chance to address what it says are problems with the access regime.Telstra's rivals have long accused it of making it hard for them to use the network, under the "negotiate/arbitrate" model. This supposedly unwieldy process leads to long and frequent legal battles. As part of his pro-reform speech, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has said that since 1997 there have been more than 150 telecommunications access disputes compared to only three in other regulated sectors, including airports and energy sectors.If the legislation is passed, as the Government hopes it will be by the end of the year, the ACCC will be given the ultimate power to set access conditions."This will lead to greater certainty, less disputation and more timely and efficient outcomes", the Government said in the explanatory memorandum to the legislation. "It is also more broadly consistent with the access regimes that operate in other key infrastructure industries in Australia, such as gas and electricity, and the role of the telecommunications regulator in other international jurisdictions."However, in contrast to Optus and a host of smaller telcos, Vodafone Hutchison has asked that the Government amend the legislation to make the ACCC subject to independent review, preferably by the Australian Competition Tribunal. It argues that there will be a conflict of interests in the ACCC's dual functions of building a case for an access determination, then deciding its merits.Vodafone Hutchison was on the wrong end of a decision by the ACT in 2005, when the tribunal upheld the ACCC's right to arbitrate disputes between telcos over the levies they charge each other for mobile calls to their networks. Vodafone Hutchison supported the Government's legislation and hoped it would be passed soon, its regulatory affairs boss, Brian Currie, said in a statement to BusinessDay.However, he did not comment on the company's call for the ACCC's decisions to be subjected to a review.
© 2009 The Age
