Australia’s regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), has finally given the green light for Telstra’s separation plan, allowing it to take part in the country’s national broadband network (NBN) plan.
The mobile…
Australia’s regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), has finally given the green light for Telstra’s separation plan, allowing it to take part in the country’s national broadband network (NBN) plan.
The mobile operator first presented its separation plan in July last year but had to revise it three times after the ACCC became concerned about the incumbent’s “proposed interim equivalence and transparency measures”.
In its decision on 28 February, the regulator’s chairman Rod Sims said: “The ACCC’s acceptance of Telstra’s undertaking marks a significant milestone in the structural reform of the telecommunications sector.
“Telstra has made substantial improvements to its interim equivalence and transparency commitments, which are intended to ensure that wholesale customers gain access to key input services on an equivalent basis to Telstra’s retail business units during the transition to the national broadband network.”
Under a A$11bn (US$11.7bn) deal signed last year between Telstra and NBN Co, the PPP responsible for the NBN project, the incumbent agreed to separate itself in order to limit competition issues.
The agreement will see NBN Co taking over Telstra’s customer services on its copper and television networks. Telstra will also lease infrastructure. The separation is expected to be effective by 1 July 2018, Telstra said.
Reacting to the ACCC’s decision, Australia’s prime minister Julia Gillard said during a press conference on 28 February that this means “real competition in telecommunications for the first time in our nation’s history.”
She added: “But it particularly means that we are able to deliver the national broadband network with the wholesale price around the country that we have promised.”
As part of the NBN plan, the government aims to expand high-speed broadband internet access to all Australians by 2021 at a cost of US$38bn. It will provide services to 93% of the population through fibre, while a further 7% will be served by either wireless or satellite technology.
Gillard said that by the end of 2012, already “three quarters of a million Australians will see the national broadband network completed or underway.”
