The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has released a discussion paper on wholesale domestic roaming services as it considers whether regulation of mobile roaming in the Australian market would promote competition among telecommunications services providers.
The ACCC announced the start of a public inquiry into whether to declare a wholesale domestic roaming service last month and in its discussion paper released on Wednesday.
When the inquiry was announced, it raised the hackles of Telstra, with the telco expressing concerns that any declaration could be detrimental to investment by telcos in mobile services in regional areas.
Domestic mobile roaming would allow consumers to access mobile services through another operator’s network when outside of the coverage area of their service provider.
{loadposition peter}ACCC Chairman Rod Sims says mobile coverage and choice of service provider are “important issues for Australians, particularly those living in regional, rural and remote areas.”
“This inquiry provides an opportunity to reconsider this issue considering the present state of the market, the development of mobile networks since the last inquiry over 10 years ago, and current and future consumer needs for connectivity.”
Sims says the ACCC is undertaking inquiry to determine whether the difference in geographic coverage provided by the three mobile networks is having a detrimental effect on competition in the market for mobile services, and whether regulated mobile roaming would be in the “long-term interests of consumers”.
The discussion paper seeks views on a number of issues relevant to determining whether to declare a mobile roaming service, including:
• The current state of competition for mobile services and whether there are barriers to extending mobile networks in regional Australia
• The effect that declaring a mobile roaming service may have upon competition
• The extent and nature of investment which has taken place in mobile networks since the last declaration inquiry
• The effect a declaration may have on mobile network operators’ incentives to invest in extending and improving their networks
• The importance of geographic coverage for consumers and mobile service providers’ ability to compete.
“The ACCC invites industry, consumer and other interest groups, and consumers themselves to contribute to this important discussion about mobile services in Australia. What we will consider is whether a declaration of mobile services will benefit competition and consumers in the long term,” Sims says.
Submissions to the ACCC need to be submitted by November 25, with a draft decision on mobile roaming expected in early 2017 and the final decision in the first half of the year.