The competition watchdog has revealed that Telstra has breached measures designed to stop the telco giant from gaining unfair advantages over its rivals during the rollout of the National Broadband Network.
The telco giant on seven separate occasions was found to have violated its structural separation, a regulatory undertaking that set the terms under which Telstra will split its wholesale and retail fixed-line businesses during the NBN rollout.
These measures were put in place to safeguard competition until the NBN fibre network is built and Telstra has moved its 13 million fixed-line customers onto it.
The ACCC said the breaches related to Telstra’s obligation to ensure confidential or commercially sensitive information provided to the company by its wholesale customers – such as iiNet, Optus and TPG – was not disclosed to its retail businesses.
Telstra reported each of the matters to the ACCC under its mandatory compliance obligations and has taken steps to ensure compliance with its obligations.
“While it is of concern that these breaches have occurred, the fact that these matters are now coming to light and are being addressed shows that the SSU is working,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims said in a statement.
The ACCC’s response to the breaches has seen it put a stop to the misbehaviour and minimise the damage to Telstra’s wholesale customers. This included alerting wholesale customers to issues so that they could take steps to minimise any impact upon their businesses. The ACCC is continuing to investigate each of the breaches included in the report.
Telstra said the report demonstrated that the telco’s separation undertaking was working effectively.
“It includes some issues that were identified during the 2011-12 period, issues that were self-reported by Telstra and importantly there’s nothing to suggest we gained any unfair commercial advantage as a result,” the company said.
“We’re addressing all of the issues identified through a comprehensive IT program to remediate the relevant systems.”
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission outlined the breaches in its first report on Telstra’s compliance with its Structural Separation Undertaking (SSU), which has been tabled in Parliament. The report outlines breaches of the so-called “equivalence and transparency measures” that are contained the SSU between 6 March 2012 and June 30 2012.
