Competition in the mobile phone sector has continued to emerge over the past year, says the Chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Graeme Samuel, at the 2010 ATUG Annual Conference in Sydney today.

Each year the ACCC prepares a report on competitive safeguards in the telecommunications industry, which includes a discussion of the present state of competition.

“Competition has continued to emerge – although unevenly in the sector. For mobile phone services competition appears to be more extensive, whereas is fixed-line services it tends to be patchy and region-specific,” Mr Samuel said.

“The greater degree of competition in the mobile sector is reflected in the fact that the ACCC currently regulates access to only one mobile service, namely the mobile terminating access service.

“More network competition spurred investment in 3G infrastructure and recently all operators have upgraded the speed and coverage of their networks.”

Mr Samuel outlined the rapid growth in wireless broadband, giving consumers more access to new and “exciting” services.

From June 2008 to June 2009 growth in wireless jumped from 800,000 subscribers to more than 2.1 million, which he described as a “huge increase” in just one year.

“The demand shift to towards mobile and wireless services is generally confined to those consumers requiring voice only services and/or low data usage,” Mr Samuel said. “Further, technical restrictions due to backhaul capacity from mobile base stations and spectrum limitations pose significant barriers to mobile and wireless platforms.”

He said at his address to ATUG last year he had put the industry on notice, saying it was time for poor consumer practices that breached the TPA to stop or face increased scrutiny and action.

“Mobile premium services, phone cards, ‘unlimited’ call claims and accuracy of broadband speed claims were highlighted as particular issues of concern,” Mr Samuel said.

“Twelve months on, let me give the report card on progress in this sector – one which is now of keen interest to almost every Australian.

“Lifting standards is currently a work in progress.”

Mr Samuel said that following extensive consultation with stakeholders, the Mobile Premium Services Code was introduced in July 2009 to address concerns about the true costs of such services. He said the Code had introduced a double opt-in regime which should help to deal with unwanted subscriptions.

“The ACCC has been actively involved in this issue and we are pleased to see an industry-wide outcome. We will watch developments with interest and (keep) a weather eye to compliance,” he said.