Australia's telecom regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), now has Telstra's (ASX: TLS.AX) revised structural separation undertaking (SSU) in its hands and plans to make a decision on it by February 2012.
Although this is a positive step towards facilitating the transfer of Telstra's network into the Australian government's NBN, the regulator said there are a number of concerns related to wholesale ADSL services under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.
"The ACCC welcomes the substantial revisions and additional commitments that Telstra has made in order to address ACCC and industry concerns about equivalence and transparency ...," said Rod Sims, chairman of the ACCC. "However, it has become apparent through this and other processes that there are outstanding regulatory concerns in relation to wholesale ADSL services."
Along with reviewing the revised SSU, the ACCC plans to finalize its investigation into varying the exemption provisions in the final access determinations for the Wholesale Line Rental (WLR), Local Call Service (LCS), and Public Switched Telephone Network Originating Access (PSTN OA) services.
Before making its final ruling in February, the ACCC will invite other service providers and industry groups to comment on the revised SSU through the middle of January.
As a result of the review, Telstra and NBN Co. have agreed to extend the deadline for conditions to transfer its customers to the NBN.
For more:
- The Wall Street Journal has this article
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