MyNetFone slams ACCC's redaction fightback

ISP MyNetFone is railing against the prospect of having confidential submissions to the ACCC afforded less weight in the regulatory decision-making process.

CEO Rene Sugo urged the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to rethink its threat against carriers over the increasing portion of submissions claimed to be commercial in-confidence, and therefore unavailable for scrutiny by anyone other than the ACCC.

The Commission has come under fire in recent months for basing decisions on information that cannot be scrutinised by the industry, undermining confidence in the rationale for those decisions.

Though the Commission's crackdown appears more targeted at larger players - which withhold substantially more data in their regulatory submissions - smaller players would still be impacted, according to Sugo.

Sugo believes downplaying confidential submissions could see many telcos simply tune out of the process.

"Making submissions available publicly or to others in the industry does not guarantee an open and transparent process," he said. (pdf)

"It may well result in the ACCC receiving more guarded submissions, lacking detail and not backed up by commercially sensitive supporting information."

He said MyNetFone had been able to make a "frank submission" to the current review of fixed line services by the ACCC because it "knew it was protected by confidentiality obligations".

Its submission, published yesterday, has large portions that are heavily redacted. (pdf)

Sugo said he supported open and transparent inquiries by the ACCC, but only to the point that they did not compromise the position of industry players.