Australia pushed for promotion of competition and growth in the fixed phone market by giving a temporary exemption from the customer service guarantee (CSG) obligations to new service providers. The Australian Minister for Communications & Information Technology, Sen. Richard Alston, directed the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) to make a number of changes in the CSG. Under the CSG, which was introduced in 1998, telephone companies must meet specific time frames for the connection and repair of telephone services and meeting appointment times for residential and small business customers. Companies that fail to meet the time frames are required to make automatic compensation payments to customers. However, citing a recent ACA report, the regulator said blanket application of the CSG “may be a barrier to entry into the fixed phone market and can reduce potential consumer benefits including price, quality, choice and innovation.” Under the new arrangements, the exemption scheme will apply only to telephone companies with a small share of the market in a specified geographic area. Such companies will have to prove that they don’t supply fixed phone services on a medium or large scale in the area for which an exemption is sought, and that the proposed exemption would benefit consumers in the area. To ensure consumers aren’t disadvantaged by the exemption, the exempt telephone companies will be required to inform their customers of that fact and its implications. Telstra won’t be eligible for an exemption under the changes.

Australian govt.’s reforms to promote competition in telecom market have brought “significant benefits” to consumers, valued at up to $878 per household or up to $6.5 billion nationally in 2001-2002, said new report by Australian Communications Authority (ACA) submitted to Parliament by Australian Communications & Information Technology Minister Richard Alston. Report said Australian economy was $10 billion larger in 2001-2002 than it would have been without govt.’s telecom reforms. It said reforms had led to creation of 100,000 new jobs in Australian economy and to $900 million in increased profits for small business in 2001-2002. Recent amendments to Telecom Competition Bill 2002 “will further improve the telecommunications access arrangements and strengthen the operation of the anticompetitive conduct provisions.” Report also found that: (1) Investment in telecom infrastructure and services continued, with new technologies and services being introduced. (2) Telstra and Optus had provided strong performance in connecting services under Customer Service Guarantee (CSG), with compliance consistently above 90%. (3) Govt. tightened interim service arrangements requiring that Telstra offer its customers interim or alternative services where connections or fault repairs were delayed. (4) Extended Zones Agreement provided “significant” pricing, service quality and Internet enhancements for rural Australia. (5) Australia was rated as having some of lowest Internet access costs at peak times worldwide. (6) Number of broadband services in operation increased 131% in 2001-2002, mobile services to 12.67 million services in operation (up 13%), Short Message Service use 57%, terrestrial mobile service coverage covered 97% of population, satellite mobile services were accessible to 100% of population. (7) Total complaint issues recorded by Telecom Industry Ombudsman declined 13% in period, reversing previous upward trend.

American Cable Assn. (ACA) representatives met with FCC Cable Bureau staffers recently to press their case for no open access mandates on smaller cable operators. In March 27 ex parte filing in Commission’s open access inquiry, ACA officials argued that “administrative burdens and costs of regulated open access combined with regulated rates would threaten the viability of offering these services” because of thin margins for high-speed data services in smaller markets. They also contended that connection costs from headend to Internet backbone could “result in unattractive, even negative rates of return for ISPs in smaller markets. They cited as example case of Millennium Digital Media, smaller MSO that provides simple Internet connectivity via cable modems with no start page or other content services, unlike its bigger counterparts.