The ACMA will regulate to ensure NBN’s rebates to retail providers are passed on to consumers.
The NBN proposes stronger service commitments: On 20 August 2020, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) started again its National Broadband Network (NBN) wholesale service standards inquiry, following a proposal from the NBN to strengthen service standard commitments and rebate arrangements for poor performance. The inquiry has been examining rebates paid by the NBN to access seekers, and the possible pass-through of these to consumers. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has been working with the ACCC on the implications of such wholesale rebates at the retail level. The ACMA aims to ensure that consumers receive the benefit of rebates paid by the NBN for wholesale service failures that affect them, and that they can easily access information about retail service level commitments offered by their operator.
What is being proposed? ACMA intends to make rules that will require telcos to pass on to affected customers any wholesale rebate received from NBN Co, should a framework for wholesale rebates be implemented; and to clearly spell out the retail service levels they will commit to providing customers, including what they will do for their customers when these levels are not met. The ACMA wants to strike a balance between flexibility for retail providers to offer different retail service levels and to innovate, and the necessary transparency for consumers to make informed decisions.
What next? The ACMA expects to begin its public consultation process with a draft legislative instrument and discussion paper later in 2020. The regulator aims to have new obligations in place at the same time as the NBN’s new Wholesale Broadband Agreement, which implements the wholesale rebate scheme. In parallel, the Australian Government is seeking input on the Consumer Safeguard Review, which examines what consumer safeguards are required for a changing communications environment, in which the large scale roll-out of the NBN will be complete and the vast majority of premises will have migrated to an NBN service.
