NBN Co cops a (unfair) blast from Lib senator Macdonald

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 02 September 2010 14:39

IT Policy - Regulation

COMMENT - Queensland Liberal senator Ian Macdonald has branded the NBN a 'farce' on the strength of NBN Co's lack of any pricing structure, but he is oversimplifying the situation.

Macdonald, who chaired the former Senate Select Committee on the National Broadband Network, asked during Senate Estimates hearings in May what access to the network would cost.

NBN Co took the question on notice and has now replied saying: "the overall national pricing structure is yet to be finalised and is part of our Special Access Undertaking (SAU) to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)."

Macdonald has seized on this statement, together with earlier revelations that NBN Co is not charging resellers using the NBN in Tasmania, to claim that "NBN Co, still doesn't know what they are going to charge for access to the network - and until they work it out, they will be giving it away for free!"

He asks: "How is NBN Co ever going to pay interest on its borrowings, let alone pay a dividend on its $43 billion investment, if it receives no income?"

Because NBN Co is not prepared to reveal details in what will be a potentially binding document to be submitted to the ACCC does not mean it does not know what it plans to charge. Nor does it mean that free access will continue indefinitely, or that it will be extended the first five release sites when they go live in due course.

According to the ACCC: "Where a carrier or carriage service provider give a special access undertaking to the ACCC, which the ACCC subsequently accepts, the service specified in the undertaking is deemed to be a declared service'¦This ensures that the standard access obligations and associated machinery in Part XIC [of the Trade Practices Act] apply to services covered by special access undertakings."

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