IMPROVEMENTS TO NBN CONSUMER MIGRATION RULES

Sydney, 22 June 2018 - Communications Alliance has welcomed a range of improvements to new regulatory instruments published today and designed to assist consumers moving to the National Broadband Network (NBN).

The industry regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), has published two new Standards covering:

• the provision of information to consumers about NBN-based services; and
• arrangements for providing service continuity if a new NBN-based service is initially not operational.

“The ACMA has taken on board a range of improvements suggested by industry, to make the standards more consumer-friendly and workable,” Communications Alliance CEO, John Stanton, said today.

“In particular, we are pleased that the ACMA has recognised that it is not sensible to go down the path of re-connecting legacy services in circumstances where fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) or fibre-to-the-curb (FTTC) experience initial connection issues.

“This is because these connections use the same copper infrastructure that previously supported legacy services such as ADSL2 – making it impossible to restore the old service and fix the new one at the same time.”

Other improvements to the two standards, flowing from the constructive engagement with the regulator, include:

• more realistic timeframes to reinstate legacy services where this proves necessary;
• refinements to the ways that providers can offer interim services to consumers;
• better arrangements for all players in the supply chain to work together to resolve issues; and
• closer alignment between the ACMA rules and existing industry practice based on guidance by the competition regulator, the ACCC.

Major challenges remain in terms of the short implementation deadlines that pertain to the five new regulatory instruments that are being placed on industry.

Nonetheless, collaboration with the regulator has proved useful and we believe that, combined with existing industry initiatives, a smoother transition to the NBN will result.