The ACCC has ended years of disputes between Telstra and competing ISPs by finalising pricing for the Line Sharing Service (LSS).

LSS allows Telstra competitors to offer ADSL over a copper line at the same time as a Telstra voice service. It is one of many inputs into the cost of providing an ADSL2+ broadband service.

Telstra has been butting heads with the ACCC since 2004, when it proposed $15/month for ISPs to share the line. Since then, the price has tumbled first to $9, then $3.20 and finally $2.50. Up until now, individual ISPs (such as iiNet) had to go through a lengthy arbitration process to get the lower price. Now that the ACCC has finalised its declaration, the pricing should be available to all.

"The ACCC's final decision is to regulate the LSS on a national basis until 31 July 2009", said ACCC Chairman Graeme Samuel. "Declaration of the LSS will be in the long-term interests of end users."

The ACCC has also finalised pricing on connection/disconnection and migrations. In past years, ISPs had to pay $90 (ex-GST) to connect or disconnect an LSS service. Indicative pricing published by the ACCC shows this has dropped to around $40.

Links:

• ACCC Media Release  (ACCC, 29 Oct 2007)
• LSS drops again to $2.50/month  (Whirlpool, 30 Mar 2007)
• ACCC rejects Telstra's LSS connection charges  (Whirlpool, 4 Apr 2006)
• Telstra forced to slash copper line access fee  (Whirlpool, 25 Jun 2004)