NBN broadband prices freeze for 5 years

28 Sep 2012, 4:30 pm   -   Source: AAP

NBN Co plans a freeze on wholesale broadband prices for five years in its new plan lodged with the competition regulator.

The builder of the $37.4-billion national broadband network (NBN) has committed to freezing the prices of its consumer and business products for five years.

In a wholesale broadband pricing plan lodged with the competition regulator, NBN Co also says it will limit any future yearly increases to the annual rate of inflation minus 1.5 per cent after an initial five-year freeze to June 2017.

This will lead to a drop in real terms of wholesale broadband prices, it said in a statement on Friday.

The government-owned enterprise has lodged its new special access undertaking (SAU) with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

The SAU sets out the terms of conditions and access to the NBN's fibre, wireless and satellite networks until 2040, while providing the framework for NBN Co to deliver uniform wholesale broadband prices across Australia.

It replaces the SAU lodged in December 2011, which NBN Co withdrew earlier this month.

NBN Co head of product management Jim Hassell said the revised wholesale plan balanced the separate interests of the company, the industry and consumers, and committed NBN Co to keeping wholesale prices affordable.

"In addition, the SAU also contains a transparent process for ensuring that decisions made by the ACCC are available to all our customers on a non-discriminatory basis," he said.

The ACCC expects to release a consultation paper on the new SAU in early November 2012 and make a draft decision by March 2013.

NBN Co is to deliver high-speed fibre optic cable broadband offering speeds up to 100 megabits a second to 93 per cent of Australian homes, schools and businesses by June 2021, with the remaining seven per cent to receive services by wireless and satellite technologies within three years.

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