The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has released a draft report on the final access determination (FAD) for the declared wholesale ADSL service that will seek to regulate the prices that Telstra can charge retailers for accessing key infrastructure.

The draft FAD establishes proposed price and non-price terms for wholesaling of ADSL that will apply until June next year.

“Setting regulated prices for access to Telstra’s wholesale ADSL service will assist access seekers to offer a range of competitive fixed-line broadband internet services to retail broadband users,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said.

The ACCC says that the release of the FAD is a result of Telstra’s dominance in both the retail and fixed-line broadband services, despite the deployment of competitive broadband infrastructure in some parts of the country.

“While access seekers and Telstra will still be able to negotiate their own terms and conditions of access, the FADs will establish a benchmark for Telstra and access seekers to fall back on.”

Draft prices for the wholesale ADSL FAD have been calculated using the same Building Block pricing framework used to estimate prices for the other declared fixed-line services provided over Telstra’s copper network. Using the same pricing approach ensures consistency in the way prices have been set for services that are provided using many of the same infrastructure assets.

“The proposed decision will foster competition in retail fixed-line broadband markets and maintain efficient investment incentives in the transition to the National Broadband Network,” Mr Sims said.

In February 2012, the ACCC declared the wholesale ADSL service and simultaneously released an interim access determination (IAD), which resulted in prices for the wholesale ADSL service being regulated for the first time. The interim prices in the IAD were established using a retail-minus approach and offered the majority of access seekers the opportunity to obtain the wholesale ADSL service from Telstra for a lower price.