NBN business plan good for competition: ISPs, telcos (Computerworld)

Industry welcomes business opportunities

[...] Australia On Line CEO Michael Bethune said in a statement that the ACCC has forced a redesign of the NBN, requiring that an ISP connect to 120 mandatory points around the country to provide national coverage rather than the originally planned 12 points. "The ACCC has forced the NBN to increase the number of points we have to connect to by a factor of 10 just so we have to use Optus' fibre to get there, at the same time as the Government is depriving Telstra retail of their fibre assets through structural separation,” he said. "This dramatically raises the investment required for an ISP to provide national coverage. It also raises the barriers to entry for rural competition. It will inevitably result in less retail competition in less populated rural areas where ISPs get less bang for their investment dollar," said Bethune. [...]

21 December 2010

ACCC and NBN raise barriers to rural Internet (Australia On Line)

"The ACCC has forced a redesign of the NBN that will reduce the number of Internet Service Providers that can service the bush, ring fence the market power of larger fibre asset owning ISPs and so increase the price of Internet access in the bush" said Michael Bethune, CEO of Australia On Line Pty Ltd.

"I can't imagine how the ACCC could more starkly contradict their statutory obligations to promote competition or more effectively subvert the explicit objectives of Government policy than this." [...]

21 December 2010

ISPs hope for options in 200-point NBN plan (The Australian IT)

INTERNET services micro-providers are hoping NBN Co will not build 200 interconnection points on its network, as the ACCC recommends.

The NBN Co wants to build 14 major interconnection points in the state capitals but the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission is expected to reject the plan on the grounds that it will bypass existing infrastructure and damage backhaul competition. [...]

7 December 2010

ISPs lock horns over ACCC pricing intervention (Computerworld)

Australia On Line claims the submission from Internode does not demonstrate its case

Internet service providers (ISP) have locked horns over the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) proposal for revamped pricing structures for Telstra's broadband wholesale offerings, with some questioning the need for tighter regulation of the incumbent telco. [...]

2 November 2010