Australian incumbent Telstra does not expect the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to accept its revised plan to separate itself before the company’s next annual general meeting on 18 October, as required under the National…
Australian incumbent Telstra does not expect the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to accept its revised plan to separate itself before the company’s next annual general meeting on 18 October, as required under the National Broadband Network (NBN) plan.
This was announced in a notice to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
Last year, the company signed an A$11bn (US$11.7bn) non-binding agreement to take part in the NBN project, which requires the company to separate.
As part of the separation plan, customer services on Telstra’s copper network and television network will be taken over by NBN Co, the wholesale company created by the government to implement the NBN programme.
But in late August this year, the regulator asked Telstra to revise its separation plan after expressing concerns about potential competition issues.
In a statement published on its website on 30 August, ACCC chairman Rod Sims had said: “The ACCC’s main area of concern relates to the adequacy of Telstra’s proposed interim equivalence and transparency measures. The ACCC’s initial view is that there needs to be a clear and enforceable commitment to an ‘equivalence of outcomes’ that enables wholesale customers and Telstra’s retail businesses to gain access to key input services of equivalent quality and functionality.”
This notice to the ASX comes as several Telstra competitors have reportedly expressed concerns about Telstra’s potentially increased dominant position if the ACCC approves Telstra’s separation plan.
