AUSTRALIA'S ACCC SEES FLAWS IN TELSTRA'S BROADBAND ARGUMENT.

AsiaPulse News, November, 2004

SYDNEY, Nov 15 Asia Pulse - The competition regulator today indicated there were flaws in Telstra Corp's (ASX:TLS) argument that its slashing of broadband prices had promoted competition.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said some of Telstra's broadband rivals were actually making losses, but were doing so in order to build up their customer numbers.

"We think what's going on here is that people are trying to underwrite more extensive investment in infrastructure," ACCC commissioner Ed Willett told a telecommunications summit in Sydney today.

"They need a threshold customer base to do that, so they are in fact loss-leading on some of those services to build that customer base.

"Telstra don't really have that...