The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has today released a consultation paper on NBN Co’s SAU variation. This follows NBN Co’s lodgement of the proposed variation in November 2022.
This latest proposal and consultation reflects further developments in NBN Co’s attempts to overhaul the existing SAU, accepted by the SAU in 2013, to reflect further developments in technology, increase certainty for access seekers on pricing, and move towards a more standard utility-style regulatory framework.
NBN Co’s proposed SAU variation follows a previous SAU variation, which NBN Co submitted in March and subsequently withdrew, and an extensive industry consultation process in 2021 to consider the future regulatory framework for the NBN.
NBN Co has also reinforced its preference to secure an outcome by early 2023 and allow it to develop new systems and prepare to implement a varied SAU on 1 July 2023.
NBN Co’s latest proposals are accompanied by two expert reports prepared by Frontier Economics:
- A report on the pricing approach taken by NBN Co, which complements two earlier papers prepared for the previous SAU variation
- A report on a suitable WACC for NBN Co for the regulatory period 2023-2026.
