Kabar dari Australia mengatakan bahwa Australian Competition and Consumer Protection (ACCC) telah mengindikasikan keinginannya untuk memecah perusahaan telekomunikasi yang dominan di Australia yaitu Telstra ke dalam beberapa unit bisnis. Pemecahan unit usaha tersebut terkait dengan rencana pemerintah untuk menggelontorkan dana sebesar USD35,13 miliar untuk pembangunan jaringan pita lebar nasional (National Broadband Network/NBN) di Australia. Vertical unbundling ini diperkirakan oleh ACCC akan lebih ekstrim dari yang dilakukan oleh Telecom Corp. yang merupakan pelaku usaha telekomunikasi Selandia Baru. Vertical unbundling yang dilakukan oleh Telecom Cop. pada tahun 2007 hanya menghasilkan tiga divisi berbeda yaitu wholesale, retail, dan network. Sedangkan yang akan dilakukan oleh Telstra adalah memecah perusahaan menjadi tiga perusahaan. Namun demikian menurut Telstra tidak perlu ada pemecahan karena perusahaan masih tetap dapat beroperasi meskipun ada redundancy keberadaan jaringan. Seperti yang telah diketahui bahwa Telstra telah memiliki jaringan fixed line. Namun demikian pemerintah melalui Menteri Komunikasi menilai bahwa pemecahan Telstra akan memberikan outcome yang lebih baik kepada konsumen.Berita Selengkapnya di bawah ini
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Australian Regulator Calls for Telstra Split
By RACHEL PANNETT and LYNDAL MCFARLAND
CANBERRA, Australia -- Australia's competition watchdog said Telstra Corp. should be split up to ensure a level playing field during the transition to a revamped national broadband network, but the company argues there's no need for such a move.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said Friday a move to the planned multibillion-dollar national broadband network, or NBN, will allow structural arrangements that will increase transparency and competition.
By recommending a structural separation of Telstra, the ACCC has gone further than other jurisdictions that have imposed functional separation on their dominant telcos in recent times.
In 2007, the New Zealand government required former state-owned monopoly Telecom Corp. of New Zealand Ltd. to undergo a three-way split into wholesale, retail and network divisions. This followed a model adopted by the U.K. telecoms regulator in the case of BT Group PLC several years earlier.
However, under the ACCC's model, the split of Telstra would go even further, requiring a legal separation of Telstra's assets and activities into separate corporate entities with entirely separate owners and shareholders.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said Friday that regulatory reform is "urgently required" to deliver better outcomes for consumers.
The center-left Labor government doesn't yet have a "predetermined view or a preference" on the degree of regulatory reform required, a government spokesman said.
The government has already announced ambitious plans to help build a 43 billion Australian dollar (US$35.13 billion) NBN.
The network could make large parts of Telstra's existing fixed line infrastructure redundant and, while the door is open for Telstra to participate in building the new network, this could cost the group its title as the nation's dominant phone company, along with billions of dollars in lost revenue over time.
The ACCC's stance will prove a test for Telstra's new Chief Executive David Thodey, who took over from his controversial predecessor Solomon Trujillo last month.
In its submission to the government's regulatory review, Telstra argued that as the new network will be a separate, government-backed entity, there is no need to split its existing businesses.
Telstra also said that there shouldn't be a need for an operational split of the company once the new network is built.
The telco added that it shouldn't be required to divest its hybrid fiber coaxial network, which is used by the Foxtel cable television network.
Telstra's main rival, Singapore Telecommunications Ltd.-owned Optus, also called for the structural separation of Telstra ahead of the network construction.
Write to Rachel Pannett at rachel.pannett@dowjones.com and Lyndal McFarland at lyndal.mcfarland@dowjones.com
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