NBN Co to subsidise access and service charges for operations

NBN Co has now confirmed that it will be subsidising upfront access and service charges for providers up until an adequate number of customers has been connected in order to cover these costs.

The private partnership that is heading up the rollout of the National Broadband Network in Australia, NBN Co, has recently confirmed that it will be subsidising the upfront access and service charges for operators until such as time that an adequate number of customers has been signed up in order for those charges to be covered.

A number of smaller Internet Service Providers had been calling for lower start up fees according to reports, and the decision to subsidise these charges has come on the back of this. Smaller firms had been complaining about the speed and data charges that were imposed in order to start offering the service, which were imposed regardless of the number of customers that operators had connected to the service.

Following the decision Jim Hassell, NBN Co’s head of product development, said: ‘This move is aimed at lowering the barriers to entry for [service providers] and we expect it to promote retail competition and service innovation, leading to flow-on benefits for consumers. The rebate will give service providers a lower-cost opportunity to enter a geographic area, and build their customer base in the early days.’

The chief executive of Internet Service Provider Internode, Simon Hackett, said: ‘This is a positive outcome that has resulted from constructive interaction between NBN Co and industry around the NBN Co access pricing model.’

Source – Telegeography