The 19 cents a MB one-way is just a form of pricing which could be altered
with little material difference to Telstra Revenues.
The ISP marketS ARE not only competitive, but still growing, with over 632 ISPs
in Australia at the last count - so Telstra's Internet access pricing
is not driving ISPs out of business. Most ISPs with only One POP are making
good money as long as they have capable management.
The cost of Internet access, by any measure has gone down at the retail level
over the past 3 years and there is significant price competition in the market.
The ACCC's claim that Telstra has increased costs to their competitors by not
paying for return traffic or settling is not totally correct because Optus, for
example, knew of the Telstra pricing regime when they signed up the AVCC so
they cannot claim that their costs were increased. The only thing they can
claim is that they, along with every one else, would like to see lower prices.
Now who wouldnt?
Next issue is, why limit it to Optus, OzEmail and Connect? I can see lots of
reasons,
but on the whole, this is likely to in and of itself, result in a decrease in
competition and more oligopoly behaviour! And, if Optus and Connect were so
interested in peering, why were they not peering with each other, or peering
at the AUIX or other places. I find it hard to believe that Optus would want
to peer if they were in Telstra's position (or connect or OzEmail).
The ACCC has almost certainly got this wrong - and their approach is likely to
drive ISPs out of business faster than the previous arrangements UNLESS
people like Connect and Optus and OzEmail/Aone let downstream ISPs connect
at zero charge or some other variant (unlikely).
If the ACCC wants to go after Telstra and Optus, they should do so in areas such
digital local loop, international half circuit pricing - or work with the
government to make sure new players such as OzEmail get access to spectrum at
low cost (and do so quickly rather than all these drawn out processes).
So, if the logic of the ACCC arguments are flawed, can we expect optimum
results? I hope that the errors in judgement and analysis at the ACCC do get
exposed because they are serious. They are the equivalent of "pub talk"
analysis - something not expected of a great mind like Fels. Will he back his
generals or is he big enough to reverse his position?
Mark Prior wrote:
>
> Peering - well it appears to be in the courts as far as the ACCC and
> Telstra is concerned, and I certainly am excusing myself from anything
> in that arena until I don't feel the burden of conflict of interest
> on my sholders - but that should not stop anyone else from participating
> in the fray.
>
> I suspect that anyone who could contribute to this meaningfully is
> under instructions not to say anything :-)
>
> Mark.
-- Ramin Marzbani www.consult Asia/Pacific Internet & E-Commerce ResearchWe're everywhere! Australia, NZ, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and soon .... China.
And by the way, do the 5th online survey http://survey.hotlink.com.au/cgi-bin/goto_survey_new?file=index.html&refid=ramin