Millions of Australian NBN customers face an uncertain future on the cost of their Internet after negotiations around long-term pricing collapsed today.
The ACCC has rejected a proposed Special Access Undertaking (SAU) that would have set out a plans on future wholesale prices and service standards by NBN.
The draft decision by the ACCC is an embarrassment for the Communications Minister who has long been touting a new NBN agreement by now.
In July 2022, the Minister had deemed an earlier NBN plan “unacceptable” and ordered a new proposal to be ready in early 2023 and operating soon after.
Now that plan has also fallen over, NBN customers face months of drift and uncertainty while the Minister tries to secure a new pricing plan.
Shadow Communications Minister David Coleman said the Government’s long-term plans for NBN and its customers were in tatters.
“It was nearly a year ago that the Minister was promising a new plan to ‘deliver pricing certainty’ but all she’s delivered is pricing uncertainty and confusion,” Mr Coleman said.
“The collapse of the long-term plan for NBN pricing is a humiliating blow for the Minister.
“Australian consumers will be left in the lurch because the Minister hasn’t been able to secure an NBN pricing plan for Internet retailers.
“The Minister also needs to also come clean on whether she supports NBN’s plan that would have effectively pushed people into more expensive 100mbps plans – by making the 50mbps plans more expensive, relative to the cost of the 100mbps options.”
The Hon. David Coleman MP
Federal Member for Banks
Shadow Minister for Communications