In its attempt to lessen the effect of the cost increases of ISPs accessing Telstra fixed network's unconditioned local loop (ULL) services, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has come up with the suggestion of a three-year "adjustment path."

The ACCC attempt comprises the issuing of draft principles and indicative prices [PDF] for six fixed line wholesale services over coming three-year period. The adjustment period would give Telstra and access seekers the requisite time to fine-tune their business models to deal with price shifts that would be brought about by the ACCC- favored Analysys model.

The model, developed by the third-party firm Analysys, has been through the development and consultation stages since 2007. Comparing the Analysys with the Telstra approach that prices ULL access into four bands based on the services' density per square kilometre, the ACCC elaborated that the Analysys model "a more comprehensive understanding of costs" as it divides the services into 15 geographic regions.

Deciding against the immediate implementation of the Analysys model, the ACCC said it could bring about access price increases that compromised "the interests of access seekers and providers that have made business decisions on the basis of the ACCC's previous approach to pricing. It would be inappropriate to immediately move to indicative pricing based on the Analysys cost model as it represents a significant shift in price."