ACCC approves Telstra tweaks

The regulator is satisfied customers won’t be left in limbo as services move from Telstra to the NBN.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has given its final blessings to how voice and broadband services will switch over from Telstra to the National Broadband Network (NBN), with retails service providers set to get a longer lead time to migrate their customers.

The regulator has approved Telstra’s tweaked migration plan, which asked for additional time for all premises to be connected before mandatory disconnection takes place and for “special services” to be given an additional 12 months prior to mandatory disconnection when they are moved to a separate access technology under the multi-technology mix (MTM) NBN.

ACCC chairman Rod Sims said that the changes provide an additional layer of security for customers and ensure that they are not left in limbo as their service moves from Telstra’s legacy infrastructure to the NBN.

“These changes will allow retail service providers more time to complete their migration activities before managed disconnection, and are intended to promote a more positive experience for customers as they move to NBN services,” Mr Sims said.

“The proposed changes provide greater assurance and certainty to end users that they will not prematurely lose their voice and broadband services prior to migrating to the NBN.”

The ACCC has also approved a swathe of minor tweaks, such as altering the definition of a service area module from 4,000 premises to 5,000 premises; ensuring that the overall process takes into account services in the hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) footprint of the NBN and the provision of quarterly updates on the migration.

The amendments sought by Telstra where broadly supported by NBN Co and despite some concerns from Optus about the impact of the changes on business customers and the added complexity, the ACCC said it was comfortable with the proposed variations.

“The ACCC is satisfied that the proposed arrangements for special services are appropriate in a MTM NBN rollout model to promote the efficient and timely disconnection of services from Telstra’s legacy networks,” the regulator said.

The ACCC’s assessment of the variation to the migration plan was limited to determining whether or not the migration plan, as varied, complies with the migration plan principles issued by the Australian Government in 2015.