The Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (“ICCC”) wishes to inform industry participants, relevant stakeholders and the general public that consistent with the ICCC Act, it has decided to hold a pre-decision Conference on the Clearance Application lodged by Telstra Corporation Limited (“Telstra”) for its proposed acquisition of Digicel (PNG) Limited (“Digicel”) and its subsidiaries. ICCC Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer Paulus Ain said as required the ICCC released its Draft Determination on this application on the 5th of January, 2022. “After careful consideration of the information provided in Telstra’s Clearance application, and as well as comments received from both industry participants and other relevant stakeholders, including available market information, the has ICCC concluded in its Draft Determination that the proposed acquisition will not have, or will not be likely to have, the effect of substantially lessening competition in any telecommunication services market.” Mr. Ain said. “The ICCC therefore Proposes to Give Clearance to Telstra to proceed with the proposed acquisition.” The ICCC now invites persons who may have an interest in the proposed acquisition to provide comments and or make submissions on the released Draft Determination. A copy of the Draft Determination can be accessed on ICCC’s website: www.iccc.gov.pg or can be provided upon request through the following email address: wnoah@iccc.gov.pg. All submissions will be treated as public information, except where information is marked “confidential” by the submitter. Where information is marked confidential, the submitter must provide reason(s) as to why that particular information should not be disclosed to the public or kept confidential. The ICCC will assess and decide on the confidentiality claim(s). Regarding the pre-decision Conference, formal invitation letters will be sent to certain stakeholders only to participate and as well as provide their comments and or submissions on the Draft Determination. All comments and submissions should reach the ICCC by 25th January, 2022. All queries relating to this matter should be directed to Messrs. Barzillai Dominic or Cedrick Yombi on telephone 312 4600 or email to addresses: bdominic@iccc.gov.pg; cyombi@iccc.gov.pg respectively.