Australia NBN
How long will MTAS be necessary?
The ACCC regulates the price of terminating calls on mobile networks. The bottom-up cost model it has been using was built around technology that is old. It is rightly concerned that any new bottom-up cost model based base on 3G could soon become redundant when operators start to carry voice over 4G – which they will within the term of the pricing determination.
With 4G (where voice will be IP based) and the NBN, there is no need to distinguish between voice and data as all traffic is bytes. The tried and tested way of exchanging bytes is peering and transit – which are unregulated. There are no termination fees for voice and SMS now – if they are carried as bytes over apps like Skype and Whatsapp. In this emerging context, there is no need to model costs or to regulate termination.
In the short term, the ACCC is considering using “actual costs” to model costs from the top-down – which is the same as the Building Block Method (BBM) the ACCC is now using in the fixed network. That seems the best approach for now. But, when voice becomes data (4G), the ACCC can step aside and leave it to the market.
To read the opinion piece, click here: Economuse 2014-08-08
Can we go faster and cheaper, please?
How compelling is the NBN value proposition? From May 2014, the early NBN release sites are being disconnected from the copper and HFC networks.
The column looks at the implications of take-up and speed choices for NBN’s viability and the national interest.
It also shows how the alternative traffic pricing model (that I have advocated for a number of years now) would make the NBN more affordable for voice-only users and also make the NBN more competitive against mobile services.
To read the column, click here: Economuse 2014-07-21
Utility pricing for the NBN
The focus of NBN Co. management has been on supply – stabilising the roll out of the access network under the new design rules intended to make the NBN available more quickly and more cheaply.
The focus needs to shift to demand – what pricing structure will efficiently recover costs, achieve policy objectives and promote the adoption and utilisation of the NBN?
This opinion piece explains why the current AVC/CVC pricing model is flawed and needs to be reviewed before the next corporate plan is completed.
For more, see Economuse 2014-06-10
Fixed wireless, by-pass and affordability
NBN Co.’s fixed wireless and satellite programme is going to cost $1.7 billion more than expected. This raises the stakes in the issues of universal pricing and efficient by-pass.
There are several complementary methods which would help resolve these issues and this column looks at asset write-downs.
In the context of write-downs, the column also explains how a bigger issue for affordability than regional cross-subsidy (because all customers are affected) is a revenue claw-back scheme that the ACCC has sanctioned.
To read more go to Economuse 2014-05-12
If you have to be dumb, don’t be stupid.
Digitisation is making content independent of carriage. This has opened the way for “over-the-top” provision of services and left carriers wondering if they are going to be left with “dumb pipes”.
The opinion piece published in CommsWire on 30 April, looks at what carriers are doing in response to “the biggest challenge we have today as an industry” (Hugh Bradlow, CTO of Telstra). Tele2 seems to have found the right business model but Telecom NZ (soon to be called Spark) has headed in the wrong direction.
To read more, click on Economuse 2014-04-30