Australian Government has extended price control measures on the Telstra network, by another 2 years. These price controls were supposed to end by June 30 this month but the same have been extended.  

This was confirmed by the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy. As per the plans, Telstra will continue to charge 22c for untimed local calls from home phones and 50c from payphones.

He also confirmed that these measures have been extended by two years and a draft amendment will support this measure. These measures also control the price of long-distance and international calls apart from the price of line rental for a basic phone line.

Reports claim that the measures were supported by Telstra and the Company confirmed that it wants all the Australians to get affordably priced telephone services. 

Telstra pointed that a lot of customers are already paying less than 22 cents for local calls and these plans were due to the presence of a very competitive market.

The Minister also revealed that these measures were reviewed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. It was then recommended that these should be extended by two years.

Market experts had argued that these measures should be removed and this was supported by the industry.

However, the Government felt that these price controls are in the interests of the people across the country. The Government will also conduct a detailed price review next year to assess the impact of the National Broadband Network Deployment on the telecom industry.