With the recent news of Telstra enabling a further 900 Exchanges with ADSL2+ access, also comes doubt over the legality behind the ‘regulatory guarantee’ that Senator Conroy has granted to Telstra.
Managing Director of Internode ‘Simon Hackett’ claims that after making enquiries with respective agencies in regards to the recent announcement, he is puzzled by the legalities behind the guarantee. He’s also suggested that the Federal Government publish the precise contents behind the guarantee with Telstra along with a legal explanation.
“Years of precedent and practice (multiple Competition Notices) have made it clear that where Telstra offers a monopoly retail broadband service, they are required to offer it at wholesale, and at an access price that is tenable
“All existing BigPond Retail services are offered as a wholesale access version to the market in accordance with the above
“So if Telstra has been ‘guaranteed’ not to be required to be good wholesale citizens, what is to stop them withdrawing from the entire wholesale ADSL market – at all speeds, in all exchanges, nationally?,”
“And how, on earth, is the resulting rise in access cost for the 50% of non-BigPond ADSL consumers (as BigPond are the most expensive retail DSL provider in the market) going to be in the long term interests of those end users?
Read the entire article at APCMag.com
