Telstra chairman John Mullen has said the ACCC’s domestic mobile roaming proposal is like offering a “free Christmas present” to the telco’s competitors.
At today's AGM, Mullen made a veiled swipe at Vodafone for its support of local roaming.
“One of our competitors is seeking regulation to close this competitive gap by cheaply riding on our network to avoid spending their own money,” he said.
Vodafone has publicly shown its support for the ACCC’s proposal, while, in a rare show of solidarity between rivals, Optus has sided with Telstra in its opposition.
Mullen used the analogy of a regional airline to highlight why the ACCC proposal would be “very bad for Australians that live and work in regional areas”.
“Simplistically, this is the equivalent of an airline wanting to provide services in regional Australia and instead of investing in its own business to make seats available, it pushes for regulation to force another airline to reserve half the seats on its planes for its own customers,” he said.
Telstra chief executive Andrew Penn echoed the Mullen’s concerns.
“The principal advocate for mobile roaming is a foreign company that has chosen not to invest to the extent Telstra has. A foreign company that is very capable of investing and a foreign company that has argued against roaming in other markets where it suits it to do so,” Penn said.
“We are hopeful, for the benefit of all Australians that this foreign company’s regulatory campaign will not succeed.”
Last month, Telstra’s corporate affairs group executive Tony Warren put out a response to the ACCC’s inquiry announcement, criticising other carriers for failing to invest in coverage expansion.
"Where there is lack of choice of operators for regional Australians, it is the result of decisions made by our competitors to not invest in those areas," Warren said.
This is the third time the consumer watchdog has considered establishing domestic mobile roaming.
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