The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has directed Telstra to improve two measures that will underpin the emigration of customers onto the NBN.

The two measures relate to a specific process used by the NBN Co in limited circumstances to connect premises to the network.

This process is known as the ‘pull through’ process. The pull through process will result in a temporary outage to the existing communications services.

The processes are referred to in Telstra’s Migration Plan as Required Measures and relate to the way that Telstra will:

  • collect the consent of its wholesale customers for NBN Co to pull through lines over which the wholesale customer is providing services.
  • notify wholesale customers if the pull through process is not successful.

These processes affect the ability of Telstra’s wholesale customers to minimise disruption to the supply of communication services to consumers.

“The successful migration of services to the NBN will also require the involvement and cooperation of all retail service providers and NBN Co,” ACCC Commissioner Ed Willett said.

“The ACCC issued this direction as it considers that Telstra’s proposed processes would not provide appropriate protections to consumers and competition during migration.”

Telstra must now amend the processes to address the ACCC’s concerns and resubmit them within 40 business days.