The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has recently received another notification of a telecommunications access dispute under the Trade Practices Act 1974 between Telstra and a communications provider.

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NEC Australia has told the ACCC of an access dispute on 8 July 2008 relating to Telstra’s supply of the Line Sharing Service (LSS).

The LSS allows two carriers to provide separate services over a single metallic pair or line and the higher frequency part of the line is used by the access seeker to supply broadband (DSL) services, while the access provider simultaneously supplies a PSTN voice service over the same portion of the unconditioned local loop.

The ACCC has sent the warring parties to an arbitration process for this access dispute, with none of those involved making public statements at this present time.

However Telstra is getting quite a reputation for being a bit of a corporate access brawler – as recently as last week, Macquarie Telecom and Optus Networks also notified the ACCC of access disputes with Telstra concerning the unconditioned local loop service (ULLS), which allows a carrier to gain the use of the line between an exchange and the customer’s premises without any carriage services.

If all this arbitration fails, then of course, it will be lawyers at 10 paces for Telstra and its growing band of protagonists.