ACCAN has made a submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Mobile Terminating Access Service (MTAS) Review. The review asked whether access to mobile networks should be 'declared' for the purpose of connecting calls.

'Declaring' a service allows a mobile call to be connected between two different providers at a fixed per-minute rate and on certain terms. For example, if your phone provider is Optus it allows you to call a friend on Telstra. In this example MTAS makes sure that Optus can connect a call on the Telstra network at a rate which represents the cost of the call. Without declaration Telstra would be free to charge well above cost to access its network and this high cost would probably be passed on to consumers.

Summary:

ACCAN made the following key recommendations:

• That the Mobile Terminating Access Service (MTAS) Declaration should be extended and updated to make reference to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.
  
  
• The ACCC review its metrics for measuring retail pricing in the mobile market to better assess the impact of MTAS regulation.
  
  
• The ACCC review historic price reductions on MTAS and pass through to fixed to mobile retail pricing.

Download: ACCAN mobile terminating access service submission811.79 KB

Download: ACCAN mobile terminating access service submission182.83 KB