The ACCC, which we’re cheekily restyling for today only as the ‘Australian Cheaper Communications Commission’, is trumpeting lower communications prices thanks competition - the area the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is very passionate about.

The commission has issued its latest ‘ACCC Annual Telecommunications Report 2013-14’, which was tabled in Parliament yesterday, and not only notes the big drop in landline and voice calls since 1997-98, it also notes that broadband has also received ‘larger data allowances, faster speeds and lower prices’.

The report actually contains two reports, the first entitled: “Report 1: Telecommunications competitive safeguards for 2013-14’ and the second entitled: “Report 2: Changes in the prices paid for telecommunications services in Australia 2013-14”.

ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said: “Competition is driving substantive reductions in the price of telecommunications services, significant infrastructure investment to improve the quality and coverage of services, and technological innovation.

“Consumers are seeing lower prices and improved services as a result of the vigorous competition that began in the 1990s.”

The commission says its report ‘also notes that the structure of the telecommunications industry and the role of the NBN will have a fundamental influence on the delivery of telecommunications services for many years to come.’

Sims continued: “The Australian Government’s review of the structure and regulation of the telecommunications industry in 2014 was an important opportunity to re-examine the competitive safeguards and policy settings in the sector.

“The ACCC supports the review’s focus on the benefits of infrastructure-based competition.”

Sims reminded Australians that the NBN Co has ‘made a significant investment in fibre infrastructure during the year while investment in legacy networks declined,’ and that consumers will be disconnected from the copper network as the NBN continues its rollout.

He reminded Australians that migration to the NBN is not automatic and it is important consumers understand what they need to do to switch over to the NBN.

“Once the NBN is available in your area, we encourage you to contact your preferred retail service provider to discuss the migration process and to ensure you continue to have access to landline phone and internet services,” Mr Sims added.

“If consumers don’t switch over to the NBN on time, they face the risk of losing their telephone or Internet service at the cut-off date and a delay before they can be connected to the NBN.”

The ACCC has further information about migrating to the NBN on its website. 

Telcos operating their own mobile networks have also been busy investing in towers and technologies as they have been responding to ‘consumer demand for high quality mobile and wireless data services.’

The ACCC’s report shows that Telstra ‘continued to strengthen its market share in mobile handsets and wireless broadband markets in 2013-14.’

Unsurprisingly, we’re told that ‘consumers used their mobile phones more intensively during the year, particularly for data services. However, mobile handset and wireless broadband subscriptions started to reach saturation levels after strong growth in recent years.’

With Google now officially to enter the US market as an MVNO or 'mobile virtual network operator', and Australia enjoying fierce competition between MVNOs such as Amaysim, Boost, Lyca, Lebara, and others, that competition may well get even fiercer if Google decides to enter the Australian market as an MVNO too - something that could push local prices down even further.  

More data was also downloaded across all platforms, ‘but continued to favour a fixed line connection for data-intensive activities, such as downloading movies and gaming. Fixed line connections accounted for 93% of all downloads in 2013-14.’

The reports also provide further detail on key developments in telecommunications markets and outline the ACCC’s regulatory activities during the year.

The ACCC’s twin reports can be downloaded here in Word or PDFs formats, or can be listened to with other accessibility options also available.