Broadband prices are the lowest they have ever been in Australia. But for how long?

28 May 2008

Read a summary of recent views from State Government on the National Broadband Network

At a meeting of the Online and Communications council held in Canberra on May 21, State and Territory Ministers reaffirmed their strong preference for the NBN to be operated by a “genuine wholesale provider separate from any retail service provider.”

They also voiced their desire to ensure that consumers are able to use the network for the cheapest possible prices.

Tasmanian Treasurer Michael Aird commented: “We can say quite clearly that we believe (with) the present structures of some companies there is profiteering going on, by having the integrated model.”¹

He added: “If we had a choice, had a preference to try and counteract some of the…pricing mechanisms that are in place now, that we want to encourage competition.”²

And he said: “Tasmania is severely disadvantaged in the lack of competitive pressure…we are paying up to 10 times the price of data transfer that would exist on the mainland. The incumbent is now making great profits out of Tasmania.”³

Victorian Minister for Information and Communication Technology Theo Theophanous said: “We want competition; we want to be able to be in a position where we can choose between providers…that’s why we agreed to work together to examine options for leveraging our future telecommunications procurements together as states, in terms of making sure that we ultimately get an appropriate competitive structure in place.”⁴

Premier of Tasmania Paul Lennon said recently: “Tasmanian business pays far too much for telecommunications access- - principally the blame for that lies at the feet of Telstra.

“They have been the monopoly supplier into Tasmania for some considerable time…they really need to be providing answers as to why they’re charging us much more.”⁵

Tasmanian Treasurer Michael Aird commented: “We seek to deliver to the Tasmanian community a truly open access network with mainland comparable pricing to improve broadband choice and services in the State.”⁶

And the Government of Western Australia puts its case: "The State Government is of the view that the most effective way to achieve a truly competitive telecommunications market in Australia is structural separation, so that the infrastructure is owned and operated by a separate company that earns its revenue from selling capacity and services to as many different service providers as possible."
"An effective open access regime needs to deal with both price and non-price issues. Barriers to entry can also take the form of delays in making decisions …"
"The open access provisions cannot be left to the contract negotiation stage before they are detailed as more than high level principles. It is important that the RFP includes a level of detail on the types of services that will be made available for open access and the conditions."⁷