ACCC commences public consultation on NBN Co Special Access Undertaking

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has today released a consultation paper inviting comment on the Special Access Undertaking (SAU) lodged by NBN Co on 5 December 2011. The ACCC also published the SAU on its website.

The SAU provides a framework for access to services provided over NBN Co's fibre, wireless and satellite networks until June 2040.

The consultation paper released today invites submissions and sets out the process that the ACCC intends to follow for the assessment of the SAU. The consultation paper is aimed at providing an overview of the legislative assessment framework for the SAU and the SAU itself.

Given the complexity of the SAU, this consultation paper will allow interested parties to provide initial views, if they wish to do so, on particular areas of the SAU on which they think the ACCC should focus.

The ACCC will release a supplementary consultation paper in February 2012 that will analyse the SAU in greater detail. The ACCC will provide guidance on what it considers to be the key issues associated with the SAU at that time.

The ACCC will consider submissions received by 30 March 2012 in deciding whether to accept or reject the SAU. Any submissions received by 20 January 2012 will also be considered in the preparation of the supplementary consultation paper.