Telstra no longer has a monopoly. Not only is there competition, in varying degrees, across its range of services but there are competing technologies. Wireless offers direct competition to fixed line services. The ACCC, of course, can also has regulate access pricing and therefore set the reference points for pricing. It also damages Telstra and its ability to act commercially.
Regulation always involves costs and distortions to normal market behavior.
The overall regulatory regime focused on Telstra is ageing, with some elements past their use-by date and others in need of rebalancing themselves. Given that there is now meaningful competition, but not enough infrastructure building to develop entrenched and independent competitors, the regulatory impact ought to be lighter and less restrictive than it was at the outset of the introduction of competition for Telstra. Whatever any government decides on the price cap, it needs to ensure that the perverse possible outcome of less competition and lower incentives to compete does not occur as a result of regulatory design error. The Age Company Ltd 2001. Any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.