Australia - Competition and Regulation Issues - 2008

Synopsis

In a rather haphazard way a certain amount of progress has been made. Since early 2007, after nearly a decade of regulatory wrangling, commercially viable prices for several wholesale services have been set by the ACCC. The new OPEL company won the bid for a new regional telecoms network. The metropolitan fibre network is now under review also and this will need to be based on open network principles. Telstra is fighting tooth and nail to try and keep as much of its monopoly in place as possible, but it appears to be fighting a losing battle. Eventually structural reforms are inevitable – they will either be implemented voluntarily by Telstra or forced upon it by regulation. Competition has delivered $900 million of benefits in 2007 according to the government.