News, Telecommunications - Friday, January 27, 2012 11:59 - 37 Comments

TPG breaks its silence over Telstra terms

news National broadband provider TPG has broken what has appeared to be a long-term policy of not criticising the nation’s largest telco Telstra over its supply terms to rivals, slamming the big T’s wholesale approach in a new submission filed early this year with the competition regulator.

Over the past half-decade and before, it has become common for Telstra rivals such as Optus, iiNet, Internode and others to regularly criticise Telstra, due to what they saw as ongoing uncompetitive behaviour by Telstra in giving customers of its wholesale division less favourable terms and pricing for access to its infrastructure than its own retail division. All of these major ISPs — and others such as Macquarie Telecom — have employed regulatory staff to engage directly with the Government and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission over the issue.

However, in that period, TPG has notably been absent from the debate, despite being one of Australia’s top four ISPs and a major buyer of Telstra wholesale services. Some in the telecommunications industry have speculated that the ISP’s silence on Telstra’s terms has led to it receiving more favourable commercial deals from Telstra, compared with more vocal ISPs such as Internode.

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