Good news everyone! The ACCC has indicated to Telstra that it has to cut its wholesale broadband prices. Bad news everyone! You’re highly unlikely to see any change to your broadband bills.
The ACCC yesterday released a draft report on making a final access determination (FAD) for declared wholesale ADSL services, which sets out the price terms for wholesale ADSL services. That follows up the ACCC declaring Telstra’s ADSL service last year, which gives it the ability to set prices.
Many ISPs grumble about the prices that Telstra charges its wholesale partners, but they’re unlikely to be all that thrilled with the draft declaration, which sees zone 1 (predominantly CBD and metropolitan areas) draft prices drop from $25.40/month to $24.56 and Zone 2/3 (predominantly regional and rural areas) prices drop from $30.80/month to $29.81.
The Australian reports that iiNet was looking for a much more dramatic price drop, in the region of around a $10/month charge, but the ACCC hasn’t gone that way as yet, citing the costs of service provision as the reason why. As such, it’s unlikely that anyone on a resold Telstra service will see massive price cuts in the near future.
ACCC proposes cost-based prices for wholesale broadband services on Telstra’s copper network [ACCC]
Image: Telstra