ACCC today filed an application in the Federal Court for orders against Telstra, claiming it has wrongfully denied competitors access to parts of its network.
According to ACCC, Telstra told other ISPs that it was all out of MDF capacity in seven key city exchanges. So sorry, but you just can’t interconnect here. Says ACCC: That was untrue, and you’ve breached section 52 of the Trade Practices Act by engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct.
ACCC also says Telstra has breached its licence terms and its ‘standard access obligations’. The regulator wants financial penalties, declarations of wrongdoing and court injunctions.
Standard access obligations ?
ACCC explains SAO’s this way:
The standard access obligations under section 152AR of the TPA require Telstra to permit interconnection of facilities to enable the supply of the ULLS and the LSS to access seekers, so they can provide voice and/or ADSL2+ broadband services to retail customers. In addition, Telstra must ensure that access seekers receive equivalent technical and operational quality and timing of interconnection to that which Telstra provides itself.
Rumours rife
While Telstra has been knocking ISPs back on exchange access over the last year or two, industry rumours of Telstra staff giving a ‘nudge nudge wink wink’ to competitors have been rife. Certainly, ISPs we know have been convinced that that Telstra was playing games.
CSP Central will provide more details and analysis shortly.
Loading ...
Hi Peter, I have an example of my current ISP unable to receive free ports from Telstra for it’s ADSL2 service.
I have contacted TPG to change my current plan from ADSL to ADSL2 and was informed that no ports are available at my exchange and Telstra release ports to TPG when they become available. TPG are unable to say when and if such ports become available to it’s clients.
In contacting Telstra to see if I could sign up for a new ADSL2 connection with them as their client I was told that there is a port available and that I could sign up right now.
In contacting TPG within minutes I was told that no ports are available to TPG from Telstra at this time.
I’m a bit curious about the extent of this.
Is my exchange the only one affected or how widespread is this shortage of ports to TPG clients.
If TPG are advertising this service but in real terms are unable to supply it for lack of availability, should they be advertising it?
If Telstra are offering ports to new clients but these are not available to TPG, does that constitute as lack of access and how in practical Terms can Telstra be encouraged to release those ports to TPG.
I would be interested in your feedback.
Regards, Robert Chomaniuk.