Australia: Telecommunication Deregulation and Liberalization

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Overview:

Australia's telecommunications sector has developed progressively from a largely centralized, publicly controlled monopoly structure, through a managed competitive model, to an open and competitive market regime with an emphasis on industry self-regulation.

Telecommunications policy has been driven by the need to provide services to a population concentrated largely in cities separated by long distances, while also reaching remote areas with basic services, and linking the major cities with high capacity trunk services. A fundamental policy tenet has been that basic telecommunications services are reasonably accessible to all people in Australia on an equitable basis.

Liberalization has delivered significant benefits to Australian businesses and consumers and to the wider economy. Users now have a greater choice of suppliers of telecommunications services offering a broad range of new and innovative services and products. Companies are more responsive to the needs of their customers, the quality of services has improved, and lower prices have been achieved for telephone calls, especially long-distance calls.

Deregulation:

The gradual deregulation of the telecommunications industry began in the late 1980’s with significant changes made in 1997.  Competition regulation for the telecommunications was revised and several aspects were moved from the Telecommunications Act to the Trade Practices Act (TPA).  At the same time, the previous telecommunications-specific regulator, AUSTEL, was abolished.  Responsibility for competition regulation moved to the ACCC, while technical regulation was moved to the newly established ACA [1].

Major changes have been occurring in the telecommunication services industry as a result of the 1997 legislative changes, particularly the deregulation of the telecommunications market and the introduction of competition. The Telecommunications Act 1997 (Cwlth) allows any person to provide a range of telecommunication services, provided they comply with the provisions of the Act. The number of licensed telecommunication carriers operating in Australia has increased from 3 at June 1997 to 68 at June 2001 and 83 at June 2002. At June 2001, there were 814 businesses operating in Australia whose predominant activity was providing telecommunication services, with 513 of these providing Internet services.  These changes have made the Australian telecommunications comparable in both price and services offered in the United States and Canada [1].

Diagram provided by the DCITA [44]