Telstra has announced plans to impose an additional 20 cents charge on competitors accessing the company's copper network, and raising the possibility that consumers will soon foot much higher internet and phone bills.

Telecom experts told The Australian that Telstra has already informed its industry rivals regarding the new terms in using its fixed line services, in an apparent preparation for heavier traffic on its copper network for the coming eight years as the $43 billion national broadband network gets underway.

Experts are predicting that the Telstra plan would inevitably increase the monthly wholesale phone line usage fees to $31 and could translate to millions of lost profits for its competitors such as iiNet and Macquarie, who all argued that price increases will only endanger their business structures.

As another consequence, competitors will be left to simply stretch further their already thin profit margins or just pass up the additional costs to consumers as the proposed price hike is sanctioned by the indicative pricing approved by Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in December last year.

Industry experts are suggesting that Telstra has intended to impose the price adjustment in order to push its wholesale business prior to new legislative initiatives that will tackle on telecommunications regulatory regime.

It must be noted that ACCC's price regulation on the telecom industry will be in effect until the end of 2010 while Telstra's pricing scheme for wholesale use of its copper network is being reviewed.

The same price levels have been in effect since Telstra was privatised in 1997.

One competitor has lamented that unwelcome price changes are being planned "while Telstra is saying that there is no discrimination in the wholesale market and the government's plans to reform the telecoms regulatory sector are not needed."