The build costs for a change in access technology could range from a few thousand dollars, to tens of thousands of dollars per premises – and on the rare occasion, far higher than that.
The nbn™ Select portal, will provide the ability for RSPs, on behalf of business end customers at eligible locations,* to upgrade their current access technology to FTTP.
Although service providers require national coverage, it is not always economically viable to access every nbn™ Point of Interconnection (POI).
The NNI Link provides Nominating Access Seekers (NAS) and Downstream Access Seekers (DAS) with a new commercial and network model which does not require our access seekers to have a physical presence at each POI. This gives DAS more control and flexibility over the network services and allows the DAS to contact nbn directly for connection and assurance requests.
NBN Co will begin a trial next month that will see 50 fibre-to-the-node users receive an upgrade to either fibre-to-the-curb (FTTC) or fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) technology.
The trial is the first under a brand new program of work that NBN Co is calling ‘Change of Access Technology’ or COAT.
In addition to the unveiling of COAT, NBN Co also revealed the presence of another program of work it is calling ‘NBN Select’.
Under NBN Select, which is due to launch in July, a retail service provider (RSP) will be able to act on behalf of an end user to order a change in access technology “from the default multi-technology mix technology at a premises to NBN Ethernet /Fibre to the Premises (FTTP).”
The changes are set out in a draft final access determination (FAD) that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is proposing to make [pdf], following a near two-year inquiry into NBN Co’s service standards.
NBN Co CEO Stephen Rue made a last-ditch pitch to RSPs at the CommsDay Congress in Melbourne last week to stick with a commercially-negotiated process.
For NBN Co and RSPs, that has now kicked off in the form of the Wholesale Broadband Agreement number four, or WBA4.
NBN Co has spent the past two years fighting allegations that it coerced RSPs into signing up to unfavourable terms in the previous version of the agreement, WBA3.
That led to the creation of the ACCC’s wholesale service standards inquiry, which looks set to result in a final access determination (FAD) which would set new baseline expectations for how NBN Co conducts itself when supplying services.
It now faces a similar FAD mechanism for pricing, which the ACCC also wants in place before WBA4 can take effect.
The timing is critical: a pair of FADs would provide RSPs with an invaluable fallback position in the event that WBA4 negotiations don’t lead anywhere.
“The inquiry will allow the ACCC to make a final access determination (FAD), should one be needed, ahead of the expiry of the current wholesale broadband agreement at the end of November 2020,” the ACCC said.
NBN Co introduced "a modified 12/1 Entry Level Bundle (mELB) discount on 1 October 2019", which, the company said, allows RSPs "to develop affordable 12/1 broadband plans for a similar price to legacy products, with either capped or uncapped data inclusions."
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