Fixing the GAPs through regulatory reform
Urgent and visionary reform of the current telecommunications-specific access regime is an absolute must to generate the enormous investments required to give Australia state of the art, world-leading telecommunications, the Global Access Partners (GAP) Congress on Regulatory Affairs heard today.
Group Managing Director for Telstra Public Policy & Communication, Mr David Quilty, will address the Congress and release a GAP Taskforce report on Directions for reform of Part XIC of the Trade Practices Act.
Mr Quilty said the existing regime, first introduced in 1997, had failed to keep pace with the fast-changing technological evolution of the industry and was subsequently holding back the investment needed to provide Australia with a national high-speed broadband future.
“Australia has reached a tipping point on broadband,” Mr Quilty said.
“While Telstra remains committed to the abolition of Parts XIB and XIC of the Trade Practices Act (TPA) in preference for the generic competition regime, the Taskforce report recognises a phased approach is realistic and as such has argued for changes to Part XIC to make it more efficient and investment focussed.
“The objective of the Taskforce was how to reform this regime in a way that will encourage investment and provide certainty for all involved, while at the same time ensuring that there continues to be fair and open access to true bottlenecks and a safety net to prevent and clamp down on anti-competitive behaviour,” Mr Quilty said.
The taskforce identified a number of reforms urgently required to provide benefits both to access providers and access seekers, and concluded:
‘Part XIC has clearly not delivered the necessary fixed network investment required for a world-class telecommunications infrastructure. By failing to achieve the right balance between “builders” and “buyers” at such a critical time, Part XIC has left Australia playing a dangerous game of “catch-up”. If Part XIC is not reformed, then the inevitable result will be sub-standard levels of investment; sub-standard high-speed broadband infrastructure; and sub-standard services for consumers and small businesses in the very area that is central to the nation’s future productivity and competitiveness’.
Mr Quilty said taken as a whole, the reforms set out in the report would lead to a regime that is less intrusive, more predictable, more efficient, more accountable and, most importantly of all, more attuned to the imperative of efficient investment in telecoms infrastructure.
Taskforce report:
Speech:
Presentation: