[LINK] Continuing uncertainty over NBN pricing

[Jan Whitaker]

[regardless what this article says, they will need to adjust in future anyway.]

ACCC gives green light to NBN access and pricing terms

James Hutchinson
Published: December 13, 2013 - 11:17AM

The competition watchdog has finally accepted the key document that 
sets out prices and access conditions for the national broadband 
network, opening the door for the first long term agreements with 
retail internet service providers.

But the approval could be short-lived after a strategic review of the 
$41 billion infrastructure project on Thursday revealed significant 
changes to the way the network would operate, and foreshadowed a need 
for additional regulatory approvals.

The Special Access Undertaking (SAU) is a vital document that sets 
out the prices and access conditions out to 2040 for any company 
seeking to sell services over the NBN.

However, the document had been the centre of fraught negotiations 
between NBN Co, the watchdog and the telecommunications industry over 
key issues surrounding price increases and product changes.

"The acceptance of this SAU is a key milestone in establishing 
regulatory arrangements for the NBN," Australian Competition and 
Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims said. "The SAU will form the 
basis for how NBN Co can set its prices and change its product 
offerings over time. It will also form the basis for ACCC oversight 
of NBN Co's allowable revenues and prices."

The undertaking will be implemented immediately, allowing NBN Co to 
sign its first long-term contracts with internet service providers.
Technology change

However, a proposal from NBN Co on Thursday to significantly change 
the technologies and structure of the network meant it could seek to 
revise the undertaking in the coming years, or withdraw it completely.

The mix of technologies would mean NBN Co creates new product types 
to sell over the network, while a change in the mix of government 
equity and debt funding needed to build the network would also change 
the regulated price increases the company had lobbied for in order to 
pay back its capital cost.

The ACCC also proposed on Friday to continue regulating access to 
Telstra's existing copper network, which will be used as part of the 
NBN, until 2019 to facilitate existing telephone and broadband services.

This story was found at: 
http://www.theage.com.au/business/accc-gives-green-light-to--nbn-access-and-pricing-terms-20131213-2zbek.html 



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com

Sooner or later, I hate to break it to you, you're gonna die, so how 
do you fill in the space between here and there? It's yours. Seize your space.
~Margaret Atwood, writer

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