Line Sharing Rules To Change Says ACCC
0Overall Score

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has decided to regulate the Line Sharing Service (LSS) nationally only until 31 July 2009, with the aim to promote competition in the broadband internet market.The ACCC’s decision to only declare the LSS service until the above date will allow it to next consider the regulation of the service as part of its proposed comprehensive review of fixed line services regulation that will commence in 2008, according to the agency.

The ACCC has also released pricing principles and indicative prices for the LSS. These indicative prices are based on analysis undertaken by the ACCC in three recent LSS arbitration final determinations, it says.

“Declaration of the LSS will be in the long-term interests of end users,” ACCC chairman, Graeme Samuel, said today.

 

“The ACCC’s final view is that regulation of the LSS will promote competition in broadband markets. This will allow consumers to choose from a wider range of broadband service providers, increasing their opportunity to gain a more competitive service-price offering.”

The single connection and disconnection charges have been revised upward slightly (in the order of 50c) from those previously issued in LSS arbitration final determinations, reflecting updated cost data provided by Telstra. The 2007-08 connection charges are also scaled up, by a predicted increase in labour costs, to provide connection charges from 1 July 2008.