Competition and Consumer Act 2010

This section sets out the category A standard access obligations.

For the purposes of this section, if a carrier (other than an NBN corporation) or a carriage service provider (other than an NBN corporation) supplies declared services, whether to itself or to other persons:

the carrier or provider is an access provider; and

the declared services are active declared services.

An access provider must, if requested to do so by a service provider:

supply an active declared service to the service provider in order that the service provider can provide carriage services and/or content services; and

take all reasonable steps to ensure that the technical and operational quality of the active declared service supplied to the service provider is equivalent to that which the access provider provides to itself; and

take all reasonable steps to ensure that the service provider receives, in relation to the active declared service supplied to the service provider, fault detection, handling and rectification of a technical and operational quality and timing that is equivalent to that which the access provider provides to itself.

Paragraph (3)(a) does not impose an obligation to the extent (if any) to which the imposition of the obligation would have any of the following effects:

preventing a service provider who already has access to the declared service from obtaining a sufficient amount of the service to be able to meet the service provider’s reasonably anticipated requirements, measured at the time when the request was made;

preventing the access provider from obtaining a sufficient amount of the service to be able to meet the access provider’s reasonably anticipated requirements, measured at the time when the request was made;

preventing a person from obtaining, by the exercise of a pre‑request right, a sufficient level of access to the declared service to be able to meet the person’s actual requirements;

depriving any person of a protected contractual right;

preventing a designated Telstra successor company from complying with an undertaking in force under section 577A of the Telecommunications Act 1997;

preventing Telstra from complying with an undertaking in force under section 577C or 577E of the Telecommunications Act 1997; or

if a final migration plan is in force—requiring a designated Telstra successor company to engage in conduct in connection with matters covered by the final migration plan.

To avoid doubt, ordering and provisioning are taken to be aspects of technical and operational quality referred to in paragraph (3)(b).

The regulations may provide that, for the purposes of subsection (4A), a specified act or thing is taken to be ordering.

For specification by class, see subsection 13(3) of the Legislation Act 2003.

The regulations may provide that, for the purposes of subsection (4A), a specified act or thing is taken to be provisioning.

For specification by class, see subsection 13(3) of the Legislation Act 2003.

If an access provider:

owns or controls one or more facilities; or

is a nominated carrier in relation to one or more facilities;

permit interconnection of those facilities with the facilities of the service provider for the purpose of enabling the service provider to be supplied with active declared services in order that the service provider can provide carriage services and/or content services; and

take all reasonable steps to ensure that:

the technical and operational quality and timing of the interconnection is equivalent to that which the access provider provides to itself; and

if a standard is in force under section 384 of the Telecommunications Act 1997—the interconnection complies with the standard; and

take all reasonable steps to ensure that the service provider receives, in relation to the interconnection, fault detection, handling and rectification of a technical and operational quality and timing that is equivalent to that which the access provider provides to itself.

If a service provider uses active declared services supplied by an access provider in accordance with subsection (3), the access provider must, if requested to do so by the service provider, give the service provider billing information in connection with matters associated with, or incidental to, the supply of those active declared services.

The billing information referred to in subsection (6) must:

be given at such times or intervals as are ascertained in accordance with the regulations; and

be given in a manner and form ascertained in accordance with the regulations; and

set out such particulars as are ascertained in accordance with the regulations.

If an access provider supplies an active declared service by means of conditional‑access customer equipment, the access provider must, if requested to do so by a service provider who has made a request referred to in subsection (3), supply to the service provider any service that is necessary to enable the service provider to supply carriage services and/or content services by means of the active declared service and using the equipment.

This section does not impose an obligation on an access provider if there are reasonable grounds to believe that:

the access seeker would fail, to a material extent, to comply with the terms and conditions on which the access provider complies, or on which the access provider is reasonably likely to comply, with that obligation; or

the access seeker would fail, in connection with that obligation, to protect:

the integrity of a telecommunications network; or

the safety of individuals working on, or using services supplied by means of, a telecommunications network or a facility.

paragraph (9)(a) grounds

Examples of grounds for believing as mentioned in paragraph (9)(a) include:

evidence that the access seeker is not creditworthy; and

repeated failures by the access seeker to comply with the terms and conditions on which the same or similar access has been provided (whether or not by the access provider).

An obligation imposed by this section does not arise before 1 July 1997.

In this section: