Who should we fear most – Telstra or NBN Co.?

Two current consultations by the ACCC show a marked difference in the regulator’s treatment of the legacy (Telstra) access network and its treatment of the new broadband network being built by NBN Co.

Both Telstra and NBN Co. are subject to the building block method for calculating allowable revenues (wholesale only in the case of NBN Co.). But in application, the ACCC continues to hammer Telstra while mollycoddling NBN Co.

The ACCC hopes that keeping Telstra’s access prices low will be good for competition and end users. It may be wrong (see reference in the attached to “price competition has stalled”) and it is short sighted. The real issue is the long term affordability of broadband which has been compromised by the regulator’s unusual assent to deferred revenue increases at NBN Co.

The article can be found by clicking Economuse 2015-03-12