Given that, in today’s digital economy, telecommunications services are an essential part of everyday life, it is unsurprising that last year, competition and consumer issues arising from the pricing and selling of these essential services continued to be a key enforcement priority for the ACCC. In a year where cost-of-living pressures continued to be felt by many consumers, the ACCC was committed to ensuring consumers have access to affordable telecommunication services, such as mobile and broadband services. We only saw limited enforcement action from the ACCC to actually address these issues and concerns, with their focus on monitoring the telecommunications sector to ensure that the accessibility and quality of telecommunications services in Australia remained high. Regional and remote areas continue to be a particular challenge.

Enforcement priorities

The ACCC’s priorities for 2024 included promoting competition and targeting misleading pricing and claims in the telecommunications industry. The ACCC continues to observe how retailers market their products and services to consumers, especially the capabilities of broadband speeds via the Measuring Broadband Australia program. In September 2024, the ACCC reported that consumers on NBN Co’s Fixed Wireless Plus plan had experienced a significant improvement to their broadband speeds in the past six months following recent speed changes introduced by NBN Co.

This year, the ACCC also concluded its inquiry into whether nine wholesale telecommunications services should continue to be regulated. Although the ACCC decided some outdated services no longer need to be regulated, it opted to continue regulating seven services, noting the risk of low competition in regional and remote areas.

“Download speed performance has never been higher on NBN’s fixed-line and fixed wireless networks. This improved performance is encouraging to see following NBN Co’s investments in its network and its recently simplified wholesale pricing.” - ACCC Commissioner Anna Brakey

Major developments and activities

TPG and Optus network-sharing deal

Rare ACCC approval

In our ACCC 2023 Publication, we reported that the ACCC chose to block a Telstra and TPG regional network deal that year. However, in September last year, the ACCC announced that it would not oppose similar regional mobile network and spectrum-sharing agreements between the two companies. The agreements allow Optus and TPG to share network services and spectrum in regional areas. The ACCC considered the potential competition effects of the agreements on retail and wholesale mobile services and found that the agreements would not substantially lessen competition. Further, the ACCC determined that the agreements would allow TPG to provide better coverage in regional areas and potentially support Optus’ regional 5G rollout. This would enhance the choice and quality of mobile phone plans available for regional customers.

Wholesale telecommunications

Regulation to continue

The ACCC has concluded its inquiry as to whether it should continue to regulate nine wholesale telecommunications services. The ACCC examined whether recent developments, including the completion of the NBN and the declining use of Telstra’s copper network, should impact the declaration of the services. Declared services must allow other providers to access them upon request and follow the ACCC’s price and non-price terms and conditions. Ultimately, the ACCC opted to:

• extend the declarations of the domestic transmission capacity and the fixed originating and terminating access services for a further five years (with variations to the service descriptions);
• extend the declarations of the domestic mobile terminating access, wholesale line retail, local carriage and wholesale ADSL services for a further five years with no variations to the service descriptions; and
• allow the declarations of the unconditioned local loop and line-sharing services to expire without making a new declaration.

“Competition in regional and remote areas is often limited due to the significant initial investment needed to set up transmission capacity infrastructure. Continuing to regulate this infrastructure will not only promote competition in regional and remote areas but will likely lead to more efficient use of this infrastructure.” - ACCC Commissioner, Anna Brakey

Looking ahead

The ACCC appears to be alert to the increasing reliance of consumers on telecommunication services in Australia’s digital economy. This has led to an increased focus on the industry over the past few years as an essential service, and this is likely to continue over 2025. In 2024, competition for a number of telecommunication services, such as mobile services, in much of regional and remote Australia remained low, and we predict that misleading or anti-competitive conduct targeting regional and remote consumers will be a key focus for the ACCC this year, particularly as new alternative services are made available.