Telecommunications (General) Regulations (Amendment) 1996 No. 73
EXPLANATORY STATEMENT STATUTORY RULES 1996 No. 73
Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Communications and the Arts Telecommunications Act 1991
Telecommunications (General) Regulations (Amendment)
Section 406 of the Telecommunications Act 1991 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations for the purposes of the Act.
Subsection 305(1) of the Act provides that the number of minutes of timed traffic of a carrier for a financial year is the total (expressed in minutes) of the respective durations of all timed connections established during that financial year across telecommunications networks in Australia operated by the carrier.
Section 310 provides that a carrier's levy debit for a financial year is the amount worked out using the formula:
Carrier's timed traffic X Total Net Universal Service Cost Total timed traffic
where:
"Carrier's timed traffic" means the number of minutes of timed traffic of the first mentioned carrier under section 305 for that financial year;
"Total timed traffic" means the total of the respective number of minutes under section 305 for that financial year of all participation carriers.
Subsection 305(2) provides that a timed connection is a connection (other than a prescribed connection) some or all of whose duration is measured by equipment forming part of a telecommunications network across which the connection is established.
This amendment to the regulations prescribes the following connections for the purposes of subsection 305(2);
a call made to an operator for the purposes of making "number to number" and person to person operator assisted calls,
Section 305(5) provides that the regulations may provide that, for the purposes of subsection (1) so much of the duration of a timed connection as is prescribed must be disregarded.
If Telstra changes the definition of "charging zone' used in the Basic Carriage Service tariff" at some future time, or if another carrier offers local calls using a different call charging regime, this regulation will need to be amended to reflect those changes.
Proposed Regulation 7B - Calculation of timed traffic - certain timed connections to be disregarded
For the purposes of subsection 305(5) of the Act, proposed subregulation 7B(1) provides that "call set up time" with respect to person to person operator assisted calls must be disregarded and therefore excluded from timed traffic returns.
Proposed subregulation 7B(2) provides that 'call set up time' in person to person operator assisted connections:
(a) begins when the connection is established, that is when the operator's call to the number requested by the caller has been answered; and
(b) ends either when the caller communicates with the particular person they are calling, or the connection ends (for instance because the particular person does not take the call and thus the call ends, or because the call is terminated), whichever occurs first.
The proposed regulations will commence date of gazettal.
The Minute recommends that regulations be made in the form proposed. Authority - Section 406 of the Telecommunications Act 1991
The regulations prescribe that the part of a timed connection to be disregarded for the purposes of calculating timed connections under subsection 305(1) is call set up time in relation to person to person operator assisted calls.
NOTES ON SUBREGULATIONS
- AMENDMENT
Subregulation 1.1 provides that the Telecommunications (General) Regulations are amended as set out in these regulations.
2. Regulation 2 (Interpretation)
Regulation 2 inserts the definition of "person to person connection" in Regulation 2 (Interpretations).
3. Regulation 3
Subregulation 3.1 provides that the new regulations 7A and 7B are to be inserted after existing regulation 7.
New Regulation 7A - Connections that are not timed connections
For the purposes of subsection 305 (2) of the Act, subregulation 7A(1) prescribes connections that are not timed connections and therefore are not timed traffic.
Paragraph 7A(1) (a) prescribes a local call, paragraph 7A (1) (b) (i) prescribes a call made to an operator for the purposes of making an operator assisted person to person call, and paragraph 7A(1)(b)(ii) prescribes a call to an operator for the purposes of making an operator assisted number to number call.
This new regulation has the effect of excluding local calls, and operator assisted number to number and person to person calls (which may otherwise have been included in timed traffic). For these operator assisted calls the regulations exclude the time between when a connection is established between the calling party and the operator and the time during which the operator is establishing a connection with the called party, from timed traffic returns.
New subregulation 7(A)(2) defines the terms 'charging zone' and 'local call'. The term 'charging zone' is defined in the proposed regulations because it is used in the definition of "local call".
If Telstra changes the definition of "charging zone" used in the Basic Carriage Service tariff at some future time, or if another carrier offers local calls using a different call charging regime, this regulation will need to be amended to reflect those changes.
Regulation 7B - Calculation of timed traffic - certain timed connections to be disregarded
For the purposes of subsection 305(5) of the Act, subregulation 7B(1) provides that 'call set up time' with respect to person to person operator assisted calls must be disregarded and therefore excluded from timed traffic returns.
Subregulation 7B(2) provides that 'call set up time' in person to person operator assisted connections:
(a) begins when the connection is established, that is when the operator's call to the number requested by the caller has been answered; and
(b) ends either when the caller communicates with the particular person they are calling, or the connection ends (for instance because the particular person does not take the call and thus the call ends, or because the call is terminated), whichever occurs first.