On 30 January 2014, the Department of Communications announced public consultation on a draft of the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (International Mobile Roaming) Bill 2014. The closing date for submissions is 28 February 2014. If enacted, the legislation would provide the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) new powers to investigate and undertake regulatory actions, if deemed necessary, in the Trans‑Tasman mobile roaming market. The Options-stage Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) notes that consumers and business travellers moving between Australia and New Zealand faced significant charges for mobile roaming voice, SMS and data services. However, in recent years prices and margins have trended lower, and new entrants at the retail level have added competitive pressures to the benefit of roaming customers. These developments suggest that the Trans-Tasman mobile roaming market is evolving to a competitive one. It is difficult to predict whether these competitive pressures will continue in the future to the benefit of consumers. The RIS considered a number of options such as maintaining the status quo, monitoring the market, structural intervention and direct price regulation. The preferred options were to further increase pricing and margins transparency and empower the ACCC to be able to choose regulatory measures, should it determine that intervention in the Trans-Tasman mobile roaming market is warranted. While the ACCC would have the power to introduce regulatory measures, it would not be required to do so, unless it concluded that there was a market failure. The proposal has been assessed as likely to have a limited impact on the economy with a minor impact on competition. The RIS notes that average regulatory costs to industry are less than $8,000 per annum reflecting estimated costs of compliance with the proposed record-keeping rules. The Options-stage RIS has been certified by the Department of Communications under the best practice regulation requirements.
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