The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has approved Telstra’s revised Migration Plan, which sets out how it will progressively migrate telephone and internet services to the National Broadband Network (NBN) as it is rolled out.
The revisions to the Telstra Migration Plan reflect the revised commercial agreements between Telstra, NBN and the government, and the move to a multi-technology mix NBN. The plan also modifies some of the migration and disconnection arrangements that are intended to promote service continuity.
The ACCC’s role in approving the revised Migration Plan was limited to assessing whether it is consistent with the legislative requirements, meaning the ACCC did not have discretion to seek improvements that went beyond these requirements.
“The revised Migration Plan will better protect consumers from premature disconnection of their phone and internet services,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said.
“However, consumers should act early when it is time for their region to migrate as connecting to the NBN is not automatic.”
“If you want to keep your landline phone and internet services, you should place an order for an NBN service by the disconnection date for your region as your current services will eventually be permanently disconnected,” Mr Sims said.
One of the revisions to the Migration Plan is to extend time allowed for the disconnection of services being used to support fire alarms or lift phones that have been registered with NBN. The ACCC encourages those responsible for fire alarms and lift phones to register their services with NBN in order to receive this benefit.
The ACCC notes that the need for further amendments to the migration and disconnection arrangements may become apparent as operational experience is gained.
The ACCC was not requested to approve the revised commercial agreements between the parties. Rather, the government authorised the revised commercial agreements for the purposes of the restrictive trade practices provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. This is similar to the approach taken by the previous government with respect to the original agreements.
The revised Migration Plan is available on the ACCC website.
The ACCC urges consumers to learn how the NBN rollout in their area will affect their phone and internet services.