Telstra slams Australian mobile roaming service inquiry

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission [ACCC] on Monday morning released a discussion paper asking industry and consumers whether it should “declare” domestic mobile roaming services.

“Consumers in regional areas need greater connectivity and comparable services to metro areas”.

The ACCC has set guidelines to ensure consumers aren’t getting a raw deal if they sign up for the NBN through one of Telstra’s competitors.

The competition watchdog is investigating whether or not telecommunications companies should be forced to provide mobile phone roaming services for all Australians.

The ACCC will be examining the “significant” changes that have occurred in the communications market – including the emergence of the National Broadband Network (NBN) company as the primary fixed-line provider; the widespread availability of over-the-top (OTT) service providers; the sharp increase in data usage thanks to streaming services such as Netflix; and the growing reliance on mobile data and Wi-Fi rather than fixed-line internet services. “In contrast, history shows that when declaration is ruled out, investment flows for regional Australians”, he said.

Telstra on Monday blamed any lack of competition across regional Australia on its competitors’ failure to invest in those areas.

Warren said Telstra looked forward to the inquiry being concluded as quickly as possible so mobile telcos “can get on with” servicing the regional market. It could be tempting to “roam” onto their networks, but that’s not generally supported within Australia. Increasingly, this means the mobile networks have been able to leverage advantage by offering no wholesale access – or severely restricted access – to competitors, limiting consumer choice and competition.

“Their continued calls for more subsidies to pay for their network extensions makes a mockery of claims that regulation would discourage investment – they are only investing where they can top up with public funds!”, the spokesman claimed”.

The Issues Paper – which will not be examining the universal service obligation (USO), as it is being addressed under another government inquiry – is also looking into whether mobile network infrastructure should be shared across Australia.

But Mr Sims said the landscape had shifted substantially in the past decade.

However, Sims says, “A lot has changed since 2005”.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced on 5 September that it had launched an inquiry into a mobile roaming service for Australia, the third such inquiry to be launched by the Commission since 1998.

Sims noted Australia’s mobile network operators had made investments in extending their regional coverage since the last two inquiries.

“Declaring mobile roaming would stop coverage being a differentiator in the Australian market and, therefore, remove the key rationale for investment in regional Australia for all operators”, Telstra corporate affairs executive Tony Warren said. “We consider the most efficient way to do that is to consider all of the issues carefully through a declaration inquiry”.