Commonwealth legislation

Trade Practices Act 1974 - Determination under section 152AQA - Pricing Principles for the Domestic Mobile Terminating Access Service

RepealedCTH

This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.

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Commonwealth

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legislative instrument

Plain English Summary

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This determination sets the rules for what mobile phone companies can charge each other when a call from one network connects to a mobile phone on a different network.

When you call a friend who uses a different mobile carrier, your phone company must pay the friend's company to complete ("terminate") that call on their network. This is called the Mobile Terminating Access Service (MTAS).

The ACCC decided that:

Prices must reflect actual costs — carriers cannot charge inflated rates
Specific calculation method — prices must use a cost model called TSLRIC+ (an economic formula estimating the long-term cost of building and running an efficient mobile network)
Price limit — From 2009 to 2011, the maximum charge is 9 cents per minute

This prevents larger phone companies from overcharging smaller competitors for connecting calls, which helps keep mobile call prices lower for consumers.

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Pricing Principles Determination

TRADE PRACTICES ACT 1974

Section 152AQA

Pricing Principles for the Domestic Mobile Terminating Access Service

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (the Commission) determines, pursuant to section 152AQA of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (the Act), that the pricing principles specified in Schedule 1 and indicative prices specified in Schedule 2 are to apply to the Mobile Terminating Access Service (MTAS) declared by the Commission under section 152AL of the Act.

This Determination commences on the day it is made.

This Determination replaces any earlier Pricing Principles determinations for the Domestic Mobile Terminating Access Service.

Note: for the effect of this determination, see subsection 152AQA(6) of the Act. The Commission may have regard to earlier Pricing Principles determinations under subsection 152CR(2).

Made by the Australian Competition

and Consumer Commission on

18 March 2009

Graeme Samuel

Chairman

Schedule 1 — PRICING PRINCIPLES

The ACCC’s pricing principles for the MTAS are:

cost–based pricing principles should be adopted in determining indicative prices for the MTAS
a total service long run incremental cost framework (TSLRIC+) is an appropriate pricing methodology in informing the ACCC of the efficient cost of supplying the MTAS.

Schedule 2 — INDICATIVE PRICES

The indicative price for MTAS for the period 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2011 is:

Time period	Indicative price
1 January 2009 – 31 December 2011	9 cpm

Note: The application of this indicative price beyond 30 June 2009 is subject to the MTAS being declared beyond that date.

Source text

Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.

Pricing Principles Determination Pricing Principles Determination