Government's rushed NBN migration plan off to the ACCC

Industry objections notwithstanding, the federal government has okayed Telstra submitting its revised NBN migration plan to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

In spite of industry concerns that the arrangements favour the incumbent, communications minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the finalisation of the regulatory instruments yesterday.

The instruments, which as the ministerial statement says were “developed in consultation with Telstra and NBN Co”, received only the most cursory public consultation: submissions were open from December 16, 2014 through to January 7, 2015 (effectively eight working days).

The migration arrangements, which had to be revised to include the use of Telstra twisted pair and HFC networks in the government's multi-technology model (MTM), still need ACCC sign-off to come into force.

Industry concerns that the migration arrangements help cement Telstra's incumbency were brushed aside by the minister, as were worries about information security and the ability of competitors to access the HFC infrastructure.

“While all submissions were considered, some comments went beyond the statutory scope of the Migration Plan, did not recognise other existing regulatory measures or did not reflect the terms of the agreements between the parties. Other comments represented opinions about the effectiveness of existing measures which do not reflect the Government's view,” Turnbull's statement says.

Information security isn't a migration issue, the government says, and will be handled by other means; and any competitive advantage Telstra may gain through helping to plan the network build should be handled by the ACCC.

The government's statement says there's no point in forcing Telstra to open its HFC network to competitors. The industry has shown little interest in that network in the past, and “there would be insufficient time for other retail service providers to develop retail products” across both the Telstra and NBN Co HFC networks.

The government also rejected concerns that expanding the HFC footprint ahead of the network's transfer to NBN Co gives Telstra an unfair advantage.

As it now stands, the HFC network can't provide connection to all of the households in its “homes passed” footprint. Under the migration plan, NBN Co is to fill in the gaps in the network, with Telstra having what Turnbull called “a limited right” to access those lead-ins.

“In accessing those lead-ins Telstra will be no better off than if it had built the additional lead-ins itself,” the statement says.

Moreover, Telstra won't be allowed to market its services to competitors' customers.

The government has published the migration instruments here. ®