The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today approved Telstra’s proposed measures to support the migration of customers onto the National Broadband Network (NBN). These measures relate to a specific process that may be used by NBN Co in limited circumstances to connect premises to the NBN in fibre-to-the-premises roll out regions.
In some cases, NBN Co may need to use an existing copper or HFC line to pull the NBN fibre through the conduit that leads from the street to the premises, to connect that premise to the NBN. This is known as the ‘pull through’ process and will result in a temporary outage to the existing communications services.
Telstra’s Migration Plan commits it to develop these measures. It outlines how Telstra will obtain the consent of its wholesale customers for NBN Co to pull through lines over which the wholesale customer is providing services, and notify wholesale customers if the pull through process is not successful.
“Certain households and businesses are more difficult to connect to the NBN fibre than others. These measures may potentially help NBN Co to connect these premises while minimising the disruption in service to consumers,” ACCC Commissioner Cristina Cifuentes said.
The ACCC approved the measures following a consultation process. In December 2013, the ACCC directed Telstra to amend its previously proposed measures to address concerns that it did not provide appropriate protections to consumers and competition.
The ACCC approved Telstra’s Migration Plan in February 2012, which outlines how Telstra will progressively migrate voice and broadband services from its copper and HFC networks to the NBN as the network is rolled out across Australia.
A decision paper setting out the reasons for the ACCC decision to approve the measures is available at: Measures 1(a) & 1(b) approved.