From the beginning of next year, with any luck, Australian consumers will be paying less for phone calls and text messages (assuming you still actually pay per text). The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is taking aim at the rate at which telecommunications giants charge each other to connect their customers to customers on competing providers. The end result of which, they hope, is operational savings passed on to consumers.
“It’s good news for consumers because we expect any savings from these lower prices will be passed on. The benefits are either in the form of lower prices as part of their mobile phone plans, or better allowances for say SMS.”
But the plan is not without its detractors. A Telstra spokesman pointed out the company’s current unlimited texting options and argued the changes would have limited benefits for consumers.
“Telstra’s range of Mobile Accelerate plans already come with unlimited SMS to standard Australian numbers on our most popular plans, while our most popular pre-paid offer, Telstra Pre-Paid Freedom, includes the option to send unlimited texts to standard Australian numbers.”
Meanwhile Vodafone argues that the only benefiter of the proposed changes would actually be Telstra themselves.
“If this is the case, the ACCC’s proposed wholesale price reduction would merely improve Telstra’s bottom line and hurt mobile competition. We call on the ACCC to undertake a more transparent and detailed assessment before a final decision is made.”
The ACCC is currently seeking submissions ahead of its planned final decision date which is scheduled for July. Any new termination rates would take effect from January 1, 2016, and would remain in place until the end of June in 2019.