Retrospective deal settles telecomms dispute

By Nick Stride

Friday 7th June 2002

TelstraClear yesterday took issue with the reported pricing of its interconnection agreement with Telecom.

The company said the actual rates agreed with Telecom were confidential.

A spokewoman said the agreement was "a short-term interim cashflow arrangement" that would be adjusted retrospectively once telecommunications commissioner Douglas Webb made his ruling, expected in September, on the interconnection pricing dispute.

Mr Webb is considering applications from both companies to set the terms for interconnection between the two networks.

Mr Webb had before him international benchmarks giving a range of 0.14c to 1.4c a minute for payments by one carrier for calls terminated in another's network.

That compared with the rates of 2.6c to 2.7c Telecom has previously imposed.

As a result of the agreement Clear on Wednesday withdrew its application to the High Court at Auckland for an interim injunction on the grounds of anti-competitive behaviour.

The disputes have resulted in TelstraClear withholding tens of millions of dollars of payments claimed by Telecom and in complaints from TelstraClear's customers that they weren't able to get service at peak times.

Comments from our readers

No comments yet