Telstra Corp. has been ordered by court to pay fines to the Commonwealth worth $18.55 million for violating the Trade Practices Act and its conditions for carrier licence by locking out other broadband companies from its telephone dealings.

In the Federal Court this Wednesday morning in Melbourne, Justice John Middleton found Telstra guilty as charged, saying the telecommunications giant has breached the law and its licence 27 times in the time period from July 2006 to April 2008.

Telstra Corp. has to pay fines "each occasion that it rejected requests by service providers to permit interconnections of their facilities with Telstra's facilities".

The ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission), competition regulator, took the telecommunications firm to court following the company's claim that it can no longer support additional connections from other firms because they will not be able to service their own clients, when contrary to this, there actually was.

The ACCC originally sought fines amounting to $40 million, yet Justice Middleton did not accept such a high penalty and granted Telstra Corp. a discount for each violation for 30 per cent.

"The ACCC has failed to prove any actual loss being sustained by the access seekers," Justice Middleton asserted.

"I have also given a greater discount for cooperation, acceptance of responsibility and for voluntarily implementing a compliance program.

"There was, however, no true remorse shown for Telstra's conduct, nor an appreciation of the seriousness of the admitted contravention."

Total costs have yet to be determined.