Regulatory authorities have taken different approaches to the issue. Most consider, or seem to be on the verge of concluding, that Mobile Terminating Access is a bottleneck because there are no substitutes for a call terminating to a mobile phone. The ACCC has taken a different approach. The ACCC recognises in its draft GSM Termination Pricing Principles that the Mobiles Market in Australia is becoming increasingly competitive. There are five existing and emerging Mobile Carriers.
Retail pricing is both innovative and aggressive.
Also, the prices for the GSM Termination Service are decreasing. In other words, evidence of market failure in relation to this service is not clear. The threat of sustained high prices for the GSM Termination Service justified, according to the ACCC, a role for regulation. The ACCC considers that the most appropriate pricing methodology for GSM Terminating Access should be neither a cost-based or a retail minus model, but a price benchmarking model. Under this proposed model, the ACCC found that the appropriate starting point should be the lowest current access price for GSM Termination Services negotiated between any Mobile Carrier and any Fixed Carrier.