ACCAN has responded to the draft report published by the ACCC on the public inquiry on the access determination for the domestic mobile terminating access service (MTAS). The purpose of the inquiry was to set an appropriate price that mobile network operators can charge for calls terminating on their mobile networks.

The ACCC carried out a benchmarking exercise which sought to estimate the current cost of providing MTAS in Australia by comparing the cost of providing the service in various countries and applying it to an Australian context. ACCAN supports the methodology used in the benchmarking exercise which produced a range for the estimated cost of supplying MTAS in Australia, but questions aspects of the approach taken by the ACCC.


In selecting the MTAS price for the 2020 – 2024, the ACCC took a conservative approach and priced the service at the 75th percentile of the estimated cost range. The ACCC would usually choose a midway point (50th percentile) in order to balance the interest of service access seekers and service access providers.

It is unclear to ACCAN why the ACCC has taken a conservative approach in addition to keeping the price the same over the period when the benchmarking exercise has shown that the cost of providing the service decreases consecutively. A higher MTAS price prevents smaller fixed line operators and mobile virtual network operators from providing more competitive offers, which ultimately harms consumers.

Our previous submissions to the consultation can be found on ACCAN's and ACCC's websites.

Download: docxACCAN submission to the ACCC MTAS FAD78.54 KB
Download: pdfACCAN submission to the ACCC MTAS FAD196.31 KB