I think that in simple terms Telstra can continue to charge a...

I think that in simple terms Telstra can continue to charge a little more for and advertise a "Premium Service" with wider coverage around Australia.
Some time in the future enforced roaming might be considered again by the ACCC.
Until then competitors will either have to invest their own money in regional service, (as Optus have), or negotiate to pay for access to the infrastructure of others


http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...k/news-story/ab337aac829a6c995f7013f511c0a64a


According to the ACCC’s draft decision, a declaration in regional, rural and remote areas may not have reduced Telstra’s retail mobile prices to a significant extent and could have led to higher prices, as operators passed on the roaming access costs to consumers.

“We consider there is evidence that declaration could damage some incentives for operators to invest such that overall coverage is not likely to improve with declaration,” Mr Sims said.
Vodafone has railed at the ACCC’s assertion that there was insufficient evidence to warrant domestic roaming, with the telco’s chief strategy officer Dan Lloyd saying that it had delivered a significant body of evidence to the regulator.

“We find it curious that the ACCC said there was insufficient evidence, the key question was whether domestic roaming promotes competition or not? We provided evidence that show its does,” Mr Lloyd said.

He warned that the decision will hurt regional users in the long run, with Telstra left with little incentive to innovate on the regional networks.


Mandated domestic mobile roaming was expected to burn a $550 million hole in Telstra’s pocket with Goldman Sachs analyst Kane Hannan citing the roaming as a key risk to the premium pricing Telstra commands in regional areas.

With a mobile network covering 99.3 per cent of the population Telstra continues to leverage its reach to charge its metro and country customers a hefty premium on its services. Regional Australia accounts for 51 per cent of Telstra’s mobile capex and 70 per cent of its 8500 base stations.

According to Vodafone, Telstra mobile customers in regional areas pay a price premium of $10 a month for prepaid and more than $4 a month for post-paid services. The total premium paid by Telstra customers each year for mobile services is pegged at $1.4 billion.
“The loss of price premium has a much more material impact on earnings, given lost subscriber earnings are partly offset by additional wholesale earnings,” Mr Hannan said in March.

However, Telstra’s ally in the roaming debate, Optus, said the issue wasn’t simply a Telstra vs. Vodafone affair.

Optus interim head of corporate and regulatory affairs, Andrew Sheridan, said that the telco’s continued push to invest in regional areas would have played a big part in ACCC’s consideration.

“We have poured $7.5 billion into the network since 2009 and the ACCC has picked up how much investment we have made,” he told The Australian.