EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Telecommunications Act 1997
Telecommunications (Carrier Licence Exemption) Determination 2004 (No. 1)
Issued by the authority of the Minister for Communications,
Information Technology and the Arts
Subsection 51(1) of the Telecommunications Act 1997 (Cth) (the Act) enables the Minister to determine that section 42 of the Act does not apply in relation to:
(a) a specified network unit; or
(b) a specified person; or
(c) a specified use of a network unit.
Section 42 of the Act provides that a network unit must not be used to supply a carriage service to the public without a carrier licence or a nominated carrier declaration (which enables a nominated telecommunications carrier to assume the responsibilities imposed on another telecommunications carrier in relation to specified network units). Therefore subsection 51(1) of the Act in effect enables the Minister to exempt a specified network unit, a specified person, or a specified use of a network unit, from the licensing requirements. The expression ‘network unit’ is defined in Division 2 of Part 2 of the Act and includes ‘line links’ such as optic fibre cable.
Subsection 51(4) of the Act provides that an instrument under section 51 is a disallowable instrument for the purposes of section 46A of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 (Cth).
The accompanying determination provides in general that, until 30 June 2009, section 42 of the Act does not apply in relation to the State of Tasmania’s use of its optic fibre cable located adjacent to specified trunk gas pipelines in Tasmania, where that use is for the purpose of supplying permitted carriage services that are necessary for the operation or management of those pipelines. The accompanying determination provides that the determination will cease to have effect before its 30 June 2009 expiry date if the optic fibre cable is used to provide other carriage services.
Background
The Tasmanian Government has been investing in an optic fibre trunk cable (OFC) network in Tasmania for the purposes of improving competition in the broadband market in Tasmania. To help reduce costs, it has co-located the OFC network with a trunk gas pipeline network constructed and operated by the private sector.
The backbone of the gas pipeline network runs in a “Y” shape from a Bass Strait landfall in the north of Tasmania to Port Latta in the west of the state and to Bridgewater in the south. A number of “offshoot” pipelines running from this backbone to a number of Tasmania’s major population centres, including Hobart and Launceston, are currently being built or are planned to be built in the future.
Systems Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) facilities have been built, or will be built, at various sites along the gas pipelines for the purposes of operating and managing those pipelines.
The Tasmanian Government applied for an exemption from the carrier licensing obligations contained in the Act to enable it to use a small amount of capacity on the OFC network for the exclusive purpose of providing particular carriage services (telemetry services and voice over internet protocol telephony services) that are necessary for operating and managing the gas pipelines.
As a result of the accompanying determination, the Tasmanian Government will be able to use the OFC for this very limited purpose without the need to obtain a carrier licence until 30 June 2009 or the first occasion on which the OFC is used to provide other carriage services.
Notes on clauses
Clause 1 – Name of Determination
Clause 1 of the accompanying determination provides for its citation as the Telecommunications (Carrier Licence Exemption) Determination 2004 (No. 1).
Clause 2 - Commencement
Clause 2 provides for the accompanying determination to commence on gazettal. The accompanying determination was published in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette on 8 December 2004.
Clause 3 - Cessation
Clause 3 of the accompanying determination provides that it will cease to have effect on the earlier of 30 June 2009 or the first occasion on which the optic fibre cable is used to provide carriage services other than ‘the Permitted Services’.
The optic fibre cable network (OFC) is defined in clause 4 to mean the optic fibre cable owned by the State of Tasmania adjacent to the Tasmanian gas pipelines between two or more SCADA sites.
The Tasmanian gas pipelines are defined in clause 4 as the gas pipelines between:
- the Bass Strait pipeline landfall east of Five Mile Bluff and Bell Bay Power Station; and
- Bell Bay Power Station and Port Latta; and
- Bell Bay Power Station and Bridgewater;
and any other trunk gas pipeline in Tasmania that connects these pipelines to a population centre in Tasmania.
A trunk gas pipeline is defined to mean a gas pipeline that is not located solely in, or in the immediate vicinity of, a single population centre in Tasmania.
A SCADA site is defined in clause 4 to mean a physical location in a population centre in Tasmania at which a facility necessary for the purpose of controlling or managing the provision of the Permitted Services is located.
The term ‘Permitted Services’ is defined in clause 4 to mean:
- telemetry services using a local area network (including a local area network access point); and
- a voice over internet protocol telephony service;
that, together, have a maximum aggregate bandwidth of 50Mb and are necessary for the operation or management of the Tasmanian gas pipelines.
The combined effect of the definitions of ‘OFC’, ‘SCADA Site’ and ‘trunk gas pipeline’ is that, for the purposes of the Determination, local gas pipelines and local gas distribution networks are excluded from the scope of the Determination.
Clause 4 - Definitions
Clause 4 sets out the key definitions used in the accompanying determination. These are discussed in clause 3 above.
Clause 5 – Exemption
Clause 42 provides that section 42 of the Act does not apply in relation to the State of Tasmania’s use of its optic fibre cable located adjacent to specified trunk gas pipelines in Tasmania, where that use is for the purpose of supplying permitted services that are necessary for the operation or management of those pipelines.