ACCC exempts Telstra from wholesale voice obligations

The decision relates to Telstra’s local carriage service and wholesale line rental.

It relates only to wholesale voice services – not broadband services - and covers 248 exchange service areas.

According to the ACCC, local carriage service and wholesale line rental are no longer essential to providing services to end users in downstream markets.

This is because access seekers are able to use their own DSLAM or MSAN facilities to provide voice services by making direct use of Telstra’s unbundled copper through the declared Unconditioned Local Loop Service (ULLS), the ACCC explained in a statement to the media.

The exemptions are subject to a number of conditions dealing with impediments faced by some access seekers when seeking to use the ULLS.

Specifically, these impediments include the capping of exchanges by Telstra, lengthy queues to enter into Telstra’s exchange buildings and service disruptions when migrating from the line sharing service to the unbundled local loop service.

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