Regional Mobile Telecommunications Access, Competition and Public Benefits

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) received an application for merger approval from Telstra Corporation Limited and TPG Telecom Limited related to three interrelated agreements that would put in place a Multi-Operator Core Network (MOCN) arrangement. The three agreements include a MOCN Service Agreement, a Spectrum Authorisation Agreement, and a Mobile Site Transition Agreement. This paper considers the proposed arrangements, identifies that the ACCC’s failure to declare domestic mobile roaming in 2018 was, in some large part, responsible for the market environment that fostered the current proposal, and that the proposed arrangements are not a satisfactory mechanism to fundamentally improve the delivery of reasonably priced, open and competitive, reliable, and high-quality mobile telecommunications in regional and remote areas.