Australia’s Competitive Carriers Coalition, the CCC, said that ‘the cost to consumers of Telstra’s market dominance was a drag on the economy Australia cannot afford and which required urgent action.’

The CCC pointed to research conducted by the Centre for International Economics, CIE, released today (and covered here at iTWire) showing a ‘$3.1 billion annual premium paid by consumers for Telstra was the clearest demonstration that competition needed an injection of adrenalin to give consumers choice no matter where they live.’

However the CCC wants to go in even harder at Telstra, stating ‘the headline figure in the research told only part of the story because it was consumers outside of the capital cities who disproportionately suffered from having no alternative to Telstra’, according to a ‘CCC spokesman.’

The CCC noted that ‘premiums of the order found by the CIE in its study -- $20 a month for fixed services and $9 a month for mobile – would be competed away if consumers were able to choose from other providers.’

The unnamed CCC spokesman said: “The time has come for action -- a fundamental examination of Australian communications markets to determine why competition is so weak and prices so internationally uncompetitive, a much less cautious approach by the ACCC in setting prices for Telstra monopoly services, and a review of all the taxpayers subsidies that Telstra continues to receive, despite its massive profits.

“The cost of Telstra’s dominance is paid by Australians time and again – in their taxes to subsidise Telstra in myriad ways, in the prices they pay for their services, and in the delays in the rollout of services that other countries take for granted,” the unnamed CCC spokesman concluded.