Hutchison Australia Loses Regulatory Issue

Australia's Competition and Consumer Commission says that it has decided to reject the access undertakings submitted by Hutchison Telecommunications and Hutchison 3G Australia for the supply of the Mobile Terminating Access Service (MTAS) on its CDMA and 3G network. The undertakings were originally announced back in October 2005, and a draft decision published in April.

"The ACCC has rejected the undertakings because some of the terms and conditions are not reasonable", ACCC Commissioner, Mr Ed Willett, said.

The undertakings proposed different prices for the supply of the MTAS across each of the undertakings. The different prices apply because of price conditions such as reciprocal pricing and transit traffic arrangements as well as the network on which the call originated.

Mr Willett said some of Hutchisons' proposed prices for the supply of the MTAS are likely to significantly overstate the efficient costs of providing the service in Australia in some circumstances.

"However, the ACCC commends Hutchison on its price proposal in one undertaking put forward that reduces the MTAS price to 12 cents per minute, which is consistent with the indicative price outlined in the ACCC's pricing determination for the period 1 January 2007 to 30 June 2007".

Hutchison in its submission, supporting the undertaking, indicated 12 cpm was an "appropriate price" for the supply of MTAS.

"Even though the ACCC found the MTAS of 12 cpm an attractive offer by Hutchison for access seekers, this undertaking was rejected because of certain non-price conditions", Mr Willett said."

Posted to the site on 26th June 2006