It’s been a while in negotiation, but last week Telstra submitted its revised undertaking for structural separation; a key plank in building the NBN. Today, the ACCC’s accepted the revised terms.
The official release from the ACCC quotes its chairman Rod Sims, as follows:
‘This SSU has been the subject of extensive consultation and public discussion. The ACCC acknowledges contributions from industry, as well as the preparedness of Telstra and NBN Co to modify the undertaking in response to legitimate concerns. In particular, Telstra has made substantial improvements to its interim equivalence and transparency commitments, which are intended to ensure that wholesale customers gain access to key input services on an equivalent basis to Telstra’s retail business units during the transition to the National Broadband Network.’
Telstra seems pretty happy with the SSU, as well, although not without noting there’s still some work to do; its release quotes Telstra CEO David Thodey:
‘There are a small number of matters left to finalise with the Government, including NBN Co shareholder approval and Telstra receiving Ministerial waivers from the legislative requirement to divest our HFC network and our share in FOXTEL. The SSU comes into force once these waivers are received.’