ACCAN wants all consumers to pay a fair price for their phone calls. This paper demonstrates that consumers are paying too much for calls from fixed lines to mobile phones and could pay a better price for mobile-to-mobile calls. 

Summary: One of the most significant costs to make up the final retail price that consumers pay for calls to mobile phones is the mobile terminating access service (MTAS). The MTAS is the way in which the ACCC ensures that mobile networks are fairly compensated for the costs involved in connecting our calls to one another on mobile networks.

ACCAN argues that the retail price to call mobiles from fixed-line services is too high and is propping up profits for fixed-lines operators like Telstra instead of reflecting an efficient price. ACCAN also supports adjusting the MTAS rate to reduce the cost of mobile to mobile calls. Finally, ACCAN strongly encourages the ACCC to examine the interconnection pricing in relation to 1800, 1300 and 13 numbers as raised in the Fair Calls for All Campaign.

Submission to: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) 

Status: In September 2011 the ACCC released the Draft Access Determination for MTAS. ACCAN was disappointed by the ACCC’s change in stance on fixed-to-mobile (FTM) termination rates. ACCAN cannot support the current ACCC draft final access determination because lower rates without a FTM pass through mechanism “are likely to be retained by providers in the form of increased margins with further detrimental impacts on consumer welfare”.

Download: Domestic Mobile Terminating Access Service (MTAS) [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 122.07 KB]

Download:  Domestic Mobile Terminating Access Service (MTAS) [Word Document - 932 KB]  

Download: ACCAN response ACCC Draft Access Determination   [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 37.87 KB]

Download: ACCAN response ACCC Draft Access Determination [Word Document - 217 KB]