Turn the raw legal text into a practical explanation grounded in Carrier Licence Conditions (Networks supplying Superfast Carriage Services to Residential Customers) Declaration 2014.
ABN has the meaning given in section 41 of the A New Tax System (Australian Business Number) Act 1999.
Act means the Telecommunications Act 1997.
Amending Instrument means the Carrier Licence Conditions (Networks supplying Superfast Carriage Services to Residential Customers) Declaration 2014 (Amendment No.1 of 2016).
associate of a specified carrier is to be determined in accordance with section 152 of the Act.
business customer means a customer that:
(a) carries on a business or enterprise from a premises, regardless of whether there is any incidental use of the premises for occupation (from time to time) as a place of residence; and
(b) has an ABN for the business or enterprise.
declared service has the same meaning as in Part XIC of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.
designated commencement date means the date on which Schedule 2 to the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer) Act 2020 commences.
designated telecommunications network means that part of a fixed‑line telecommunications network made up of local access lines or parts of local access lines which:
(a) is used, or is technically capable of being used, to supply superfast carriage services; and
(b) is not:
(i) subject to either sections 141 or 143 of the Act; or
(ii) the subject of a ministerial exemption in force under section 141A or section 144 of the Act; or
(iii) any of the following:
(A) the national broadband network; or
(B) a specified HFC network; or
(C) any local access lines that are used to supply carriage services to business customers, public bodies or large charity customers; or
(D) a fixed‑line network (or any part of such a network) in existence immediately before 1 January 2011 which is situated in a real estate development project that is extended on or after 1 January 2011 to an area that was developed as another stage of the project;
(E) a fixed‑line network (or any part of a such a network) in existence immediately before 1 January 2011 which prior to that date was used to supply carriage services to residential customers and which has not been extended on or after 1 January 2011;
(F) a fixed‑line network (or any part of such a network) in existence immediately before 1 January 2011 which prior to that date was used to supply carriage services wholly or principally to residential customers and which is extended on or after 1 January 2011 by less than 1 kilometre from any point on the infrastructure of the network (as it stood immediately before 1 January 2011); and
(G) a fixed‑line network (or any part of such a network) which is:
(i) owned by a carrier that is also the primary universal service provider; and
(ii) built (including any extensions made to such a network of less than 1 kilometre from any point on the infrastructure of the network) between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2014 to enable the primary universal service provider to fulfil the universal service obligation; and
(c) is situated anywhere in Australia.
eligible service has the same meaning as in section 152AL of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.
employee, in respect of a wholesale or retail company, includes a natural person who is acting as an agent, or is engaged by the company as a consultant or contractor acting in an equivalent role to an employee or carrying out the role of an employee.
functional separation undertaking has the same meaning as in Part 8 of the Telecommunications Act 1997.
geographic extent means the physical location of infrastructure.
large charity customer means a customer that is an incorporated charitable organisation which employs 15 or more employees at any time.
Layer 2 has the same meaning as in the Open System Interconnection reference model for data exchange.
Layer 2 Wholesale Service means a Layer 2 bitstream service that has all of the following characteristics:
(a) a downstream data transfer rate of 25 megabits per second (peak information rate); and
(b) an upstream data transfer rate of 5 megabits per second (peak information rate); and
(c) is able to be used by a carrier or carriage service provider to supply carriage services, including voice telephony, to an end‑user.
local access line has the same meaning as in section 141D of the Act (as that section stood immediately before the commencement of Schedule 2 to the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer) Act 2020).
multi‑dwelling unit means a building or buildings where multiple separate units for occupation (from time to time) as a place of residence or business are contained within one complex.
national broadband network has the same meaning as in section 5 of the National Broadband Network Companies Act 2011.
operational support systems means any system for service activation, customer support, billing and service fault rectification and similar functions and includes systems for maintaining and recording customer information.
permitted discrimination grounds means discrimination against a carrier or carriage service provider by a specified carrier (or wholesale company, as the case may be) where it has reasonable grounds to believe that the particular carrier or carriage service provider would fail, to a material extent, to comply with an obligation that is reasonably necessary to protect the carrier’s (or the wholesale company’s) legitimate interests.
Note: For the purposes of the definition of permitted discrimination grounds, examples of grounds include evidence of lack of creditworthiness and repeated failures by the particular carrier or carriage service provider to comply with similar terms and conditions offered by the specified carrier (or wholesale company, as the case may be).
point of interconnection means a point within a carrier’s telecommunications network:
(a) for the interconnection of facilities by another carrier; and
(b) which is:
(i) located in each State or Territory capital city in which the carrier operates the designated telecommunications network and is reasonably accessible to the other carrier; or
(ii) another location as agreed between the carrier and the other carrier.
primary universal service provider has the meaning given in section 12A of the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999.
protected wholesale information means:
(a) confidential information obtained by the wholesale company for the purpose of, or in the course of, supplying carriage services to a wholesale customer that identifies the wholesale customer or a customer of that wholesale customer; or
(b) information obtained by the wholesale company for the purpose of, or in the course of, supplying carriage services to a wholesale customer that is commercially sensitive to a wholesale customer; or
(c) any confidential information or commercially sensitive information which is derived from information of the kind described in paragraph (a) or (b) above, whether or not in an aggregate form, that would enable the identity of a:
(i) wholesale customer to be ascertained; or
(ii) customer of a wholesale customer to be ascertained;
but does not include:
(d) information of the kind described in subparagraph (c)(i) above where the information is aggregated on a national basis; or
(e) information which is already public.
public body means:
(a) the Commonwealth, a State or a Territory; or
(b) a municipal authority or other local governing body; or
(c) a public authority that is constituted by or under a law of the Commonwealth, a State or a Territory.
related body corporate has the same meaning as in section 9 of the Corporations Act 2001.
retail company means a company which has the following functions:
(a) selling and supplying eligible services to end‑user customers using the designated telecommunications network; and
(b) negotiating or establishing supply contracts with end‑user customers.
specified broadband service means a carriage service which has the following characteristics;
(a) it enables end‑users to download communications; and
(b) its download transmission speed is normally 6 megabits per second or more; and
(c) it is supplied using a line to premises occupied or used by an end‑user.
specified carrier means a carrier that either owns or operates a designated telecommunications network at any time on or after the commencement of this Declaration, and where the context permits, includes a wholesale company.
specified HFC network means:
(a) a telecommunications network that is used to supply carriage services and the line component of which consists of optical fibre to connecting nodes, supplemented by coaxial cable connections from the nodes to the premises of end‑users; and
(b) which was in existence prior to 1 January 2011. For the avoidance of doubt, any extensions to such a network made on or after 1 January 2011 are to be treated as forming part of a ‘specified HFC network’ for the purposes of this Determination.
superfast carriage service has the same meaning as in subsection 141(10) of the Act (as that section stood immediately before the commencement of Schedule 2 to the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer) Act 2020).
universal service obligation has the meaning given in section 9 of the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999.
wholesale company means a company which has the following functions:
(a) selling and supplying eligible services to carriers, carriage service providers and the retail company (wholesale customers) using the designated telecommunications network; and
(b) where required, providing (or arranging for the provision of) service activation and network provisioning, and fault detection, handling and rectification and similar functions, in respect of the designated telecommunications network; and
(c) negotiating or establishing access agreements with its wholesale customers. For the avoidance of doubt, additional functions of the wholesale company may include controlling or operating the designated telecommunications network but these are not mandatory functions.
Note: Several other words and expressions used in this Declaration have the same meaning given by the Telecommunications Act 1997 (paragraph 13(1)(b) of the Legislation Act 2003). For example:
‑ carriage service;
‑ carriage service provider;
‑ carrier;
‑ customer cabling;
‑ customer equipment;
‑ facility;
‑ main distribution frame;
‑ real estate development project; and
‑ telecommunications network.
(2) Where the specified carrier uses a designated telecommunications network to supply carriage services to carriers or carriage service providers, and those carriers and carriage service providers:
(a) are each:
(i) related body corporates of the specified carrier; or
(ii) within the same company group of companies as the specified carrier; and
(b) supply carriage services to residential customers;
the operations of the designated telecommunications network will not be treated as being on a wholesale‑only basis for the purposes of subsections 6(6) and 6(5A) of this Declaration.