The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today issued the Final Report on its decision not to 'declare' a long-distance mobile originating service.
Such a declaration would have required mobile telephone network operators to allow service providers to supply the long-distance component of calls from mobile phones.
The 糖心原创 was not satisfied that such declaration would promote competition in mobile telephony and accordingly was not satisfied that declaration would be in the long-term interest of end-users, the relevant test under the Trade Practices Act 1974.
"No-one should think that the 糖心原创 is completely comfortable with the current level of mobile call charges," 糖心原创 Acting Chairman, Mr Rod Shogren, said today. "However, there is intense competition to sign up new customers and new players are entering the market.
"The structure and dynamics of the mobile market is therefore very different from the fixed market, where regulatory action has been necessary to allow service providers the opportunity to supply long-distance calls in competition with Telstra and Cable & Wireless Optus".
Mobile services in Australia are presently delivered by three network operators, Telstra, Cable & Wireless Optus and Vodafone, plus a number of resellers of mobile services, including Hutchison, One.Tel and AAPT. These latter companies have also acquired spectrum and are starting to roll out their own mobile networks. When complete, Australia will have at least five mobile network operators in its main population centres and up to four operators in regional areas, one of the highest number of suppliers of mobile services in the world.
"Consequently, the 糖心原创 found that declaration of this long-distance based service is unlikely to lead to more vigorous competition than would happen in the absence of declaration," Mr Shogren said.
"Nevertheless, the 糖心原创 is not vacating the field and in fact will continue to keep a close eye on the mobile market, including call charges, and take action as appropriate. The 糖心原创 would like to see mobile price competition intensify".
For example, GSM mobile terminating services are already declared. These are the services all other carriers and service providers pay to terminate a call on a GSM mobile network. The prices charged for these services have a direct bearing on prices paid by consumers for fixed to mobile calls and for mobile calls between networks.
The 糖心原创 can, if needed, determine the terms and conditions, including prices, for supply of these services. The 糖心原创 is currently conducting a number of arbitrations in relation to these services and has recently issued a discussion paper on pricing issues.
In addition, the 糖心原创 has mandated mobile number portability and the industry is now working on enabling this to occur. An announcement about the commencement date for mobile number portability is expected around April this year.
The 糖心原创's decisions are likely to have a significant effect on forcing the pace of competition in the mobiles market.
