The competition watchdog on Tuesday rejected Telstra's proposed charges for connecting and disconnecting other broadband companies' access to its copper wire.
Telstra had proposed a connection charge of $90 and an equal disconnection charge for its line sharing service (LSS).
The LSS provides access to part of the basic copper wire of Telstra's network, allowing competing carriers to provide their own broadband services to end-users while Telstra continues to provide voice services.
The chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Graeme Samuel, said: "The ACCC's final decision is to reject Telstra's connection and disconnection undertaking for the LSS.
"The ACCC is of the view that Telstra's proposed connection and disconnection charges are not reasonable."
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The ACCC said the charges were well above what was appropriate for the service and queried whether the separate disconnection fee should be levied at all in some cases.
In other broadband news, the ACCC on Tuesday said growth in broadband internet connections was slowing.
The ACCC's quarterly snapshot showed there were now almost three million broadband connections in Australia, including two million ADSL connections.
But the 12 per cent growth for the December 2005 quarter was slower than the 18 per cent growth in the September quarter, the ACCC said.
ACCC commissioner Ed Willett said that last year the take-up of broadband services rose 85 per cent - an increase of more than 1.25 million customers.
"In 2005, it was the take-up of DSL broadband that by far exhibited the strongest growth," Mr Willett said.
"However, there was also steady growth in the take-up of broadband delivered by other technologies, including satellite and cable.
"There are also signs that take-up of wireless broadband services is beginning to increase, albeit off a limited base."
The ACCC said the figures were conservative as not all broadband providers took part in the survey.
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