Open access (infrastructure)

In the context of infrastructure, open access involves physical infrastructure such as railways and physical telecommunications network plant being made available to clients other than the owners, for a fee.

For example, private railways within a steel works are private and not available to outsiders. In the hypothetical case of the steelworks having a port or a railway to a distant mine, outsiders might want access to save having to incur a possibly large cost of building their own facility.

The Marconi Company was a pioneer of long distance radio communication, which was particularly useful for ships at sea. Marconi was very protective about its costly infrastructure and refused - except for emergencies - to allow other radio companies to share its infrastructure. Even if the message sender was royalty, as in the Deutschland incident of 1902, they continued to refuse access. Since radio communication was so new, it preceded laws, regulations and licences, which might otherwise imposed conditions to open infrastructure to other players.

In the northwest of Western Australia, two large mining companies operate their own private railway networks to bring iron ore from mines to the port. In 1999 North Limited made an application to access Rio Tinto's Pilbara system, but Rio's takeover of North Limited meant that application was never fully tested. In 2004 Fortescue Metals Group launched a bid to have the Mt Newman line owned by BHP Billiton "declared" for third party access. The owner of the line claimed that they formed an integral part of the production process, and so should not be subject to completion requirements. When these mines started in the 1960s, state laws required the miners to make their infrastructure available to other players, but no application had been made. In the same region, the Fortescue Metals Group railway has been set up for open access for a fee.

In June 2008 the Federal Government advisory body, the National Competition Council, recommended that BHP Billiton's Goldsworthy railway and Rio Tinto's Robe River and Hamersley lines should be declared open access. Treasurer Wayne Swan was given 60 days to make a final decision based on this recommendation. On October 27 the three lines were 'declared' with open access to apply from November 20, 2008. This will apply for 20 years under the National Access Regime within the Trade Practices Act 1974. The declaration does not give a right of access, but provides a third party with recourse if access terms cannot be negotiated with the infrastructure owner.

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