Telstra 2002 Annual Report Download - page 43

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Telstra Corporation Limited and controlled entities
Competition and Regulation
Also in March 2002 FOXTEL agreed to supply its service to Telstra in order for Telstra to resell the service as
part of our bundled offerings along with our consumer telecommunications products. We have
subsequently obtained a broadcast licence via a wholly owned subsidiary and have notified the ACCC of a
technical third line force caused by selling a bundle of telecommunications services directly along with the
Pay TV service via a subsidiary. This notification is with the ACCC for consideration at this time.
The impact of the March 2002 agreements and the subsequent undertakings will considerably expand the
number of companies offering a retail payTV product (including Telstra) and much of this will be the FOXTEL
product either as a resale product or as content supplied from FOXTEL to other infrastructure operators. We
expect this to increase the appeal of FOXTEL and the general penetration of pay TV.
Provided the March 2002 agreements are approved, we anticipate that in fiscal 2003 FOXTEL and Telstra will
undertake the digitisation of the HFC network and this will lead to a further expansion of the pay TV product
offering.
Advertising, Information and Directory Services
We compete with a variety of domestic and international companies. We expect increasing competition in
our advertising directory services business as we continue to maintain the integrated public number
database for use by eligible carriage service providers and others wishing to offer competitive advertising
directory services, particularly in the online arena. Public number directory publishers may also seek access
to the database. We have already experienced increased competition in this business from regional
competitors.
Our print directories White Pages® and Yellow Pages®, are key advertising outlets for Governments and
businesses, in particular small and medium enterprises across Australia. As such, we operate within the
highly competitive Australian advertising market, competing with a range of other media, newspapers,
direct marketing and trade publications, among others, which also target a similar customer base.
Payphones
In our payphones business, we expect increasing competition due to new market entrants and indirect
competition from increased mobile telephone use.
Regulation
Overview
Some of the major features of the Australian telecommunications regulatory regime are:
• industry specific competition regulation;
• extensive industry specific consumer protection regulation;
• industry codes and standards under a self-regulatory regime;
• no limits on the number of carriers;
• carriage service providers with many of the same access rights and obligations as carriers; and
• limited carrier land access rights and statutory immunities.
Reviews have been undertaken in fiscal 2001 and 2002 on some specific telecommunications regulations
with the most significant having been the Productivity Commission’s review of telecommunications
competition regulation.
Principal industry regulators
The Communications Minister is primarily responsible for telecommunications industry policy and
legislation.