Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:C2004A05097:clause:1_8cm
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:C2004A05097
Segment Type: clause
Provision Reference: sch 1 cl 8CM
Character Range: 68376–69930

8CM  Re-affirmation of universal service obligation

 (1) The Parliament re-affirms its intention:
 (a) that all people in Australia, wherever they reside or carry on business, will continue to have reasonable access, on an equitable basis, to standard telephone services and payphones; and
 (b) that the universal service obligation described in section 288 of the Telecommunications Act 1991 should be fulfilled as efficiently and economically as practicable; and
 (c) that the losses that result from supplying loss-making services in the course of fulfilling the universal service obligation should be shared among carriers on an equitable basis, namely, in direct proportion to each carrier's share of the interconnect time between those carriers' trunk and international networks and all local access networks; and
 (d) that the information on the basis of which, and the methods by which, those losses and those carriers' respective shares in those losses are determined should be open to scrutiny by those carriers, and by the public, to the greatest extent possible without undue damage to a carrier's interests being caused by the disclosure of confidential commercial information.

 (2) Part 13 of the Telecommunications Act 1991 provides accordingly for the assessment, collection, recovery and distribution of the levy imposed by the Telecommunications (Universal Service Levy) Act 1991.

 (3) An expression used in this section and in Part 13 of the Telecommunications Act 1991 has the same meaning in this section as it has in that Part.