The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) has released submissions to its December Consultation Paperon the NBN Co Special Access Undertaking (SAU).

 

The submissions, from Telstra, Herbert Geer on behalf of iiNet, Internode and TransACT, Nextgen, Macquarie Telecom and Vodaphone Hutchison Australia, all argue that the SAU gives too much control to NBN Co and too little oversight by the ACCC of the application of the wholesale broadband agreement (WBA).

 

The Herbert Geer submission points that the ACCC has no formal oversight of the WBA,  and in the event of an inconsistency between regulated terms set by the ACCC and the terms of the WBA, the terms of the WBA will prevail.

 

It also argues that “Once the NBN is fully up and running, many service providers, such as our Clients, are likely to have no choice but to provide their services utilising the NBN.”

 

“Indeed one of the fundamental policy outcomes of the Government’s reforms  to the industry is to shut down Telstra’s ubiquitous copper network and transfer services provided over that network to the NBN.”

 

The Telstra submission proposes that the NBN Co SAU, “either itself or in conjunction with other regulatory instruments, should provide an alternative set of supply terms to the WBA”.  It also argues that the 30-year term of the NBN Co SAU is too long and there is insufficient provision for its review. Further the proposed coverage of the price controls “appears to provide too much flexibility for NBN Co over pricing, particularly for new products”.

 

“NBN Co indicates that the Long Term Revenue Constraint will not become binding for at least 10 years, and there is a question as to whether the Long Term Revenue Constraint will operate as a real constraint on pricing over the proposed 30 year term of the NBN Co SAU.”

 

Telstra also raised the lack of oversight by the ACCC and argued that the NBN Co SAU does not adequately address a number of issues which are fundamental to the terms of supply. “As a consequence, the NBN Co SAU fails to provide sufficient certainty that the terms of supply will be fair and provide security for ongoing supply.”

 

The submissions are available here.