Australia - Regulatory Environment - Overview

Synopsis

This report gives an overall picture of the regulatory regime, introducing some historical points of note, leading up to the introduction of the 1997 Telecommunications Act. The industry self-regulation feature is introduced, including the Codes and guidelines, and the roles of the ACCC, the TAF, ACIF and ACA. The general theme raised in this report is that industry self-regulation has largely failed, and the regulatory regime has inhibited market innovation rather than foster it. Competition has suffered and Telstra remains the dominant operator. However, changes were in the air in April 2002 when the Federal government proposed some serious reforms, including the virtual separation of Telstra.