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ACCC clears Optus to scrap HFC network and use NBN instead

The ACCC has cleared, provisionally, the proposed deal between Optus and NBN Co under which Optus is to be paid around $800m to shut down its HFC network and transfer customers onto the NBN. read more

Labor Gov't would fund FTTN rollout

IT Policy - Regulation

The ALP has announce plans to pour up to $2.8 billion of public money into a FTTN network, to be built jointly with telecoms carriers, and to introduce legislation that will create certainty for investors and guarantee equitable access for other service providers.
Few details of the plan were revealed in the announcement. The ALP said: "A Beazley Labor Government will draw on the $757 million Broadband Connect program and provide an equity injection from the $2 billion earmarked for the Communications Fund to deliver the public funding of this partnership with the telecommunications sector."

It promised to I"mprove regulatory settings to encourage private sector investment on a pro-competitive basis"  These reforms would be overseen by Infrastructure Australia, a new national infrastructure advisory council that would  be created by a future  Labor Government.

The ALP said these reforms would include structural separation between infrastructure owners and broadband retailers and investment certainty for joint venture partners through prospective access terms and exemption from Part XIB and XIC of the Trade Practices Act – to deliver the incentives for private companies invest.