The ACCC has told Telstra that it should charge its wholesale telco customers almost 10 per cent less for access to the century-old copper network running around the country’s cities and towns. The flow-on effect might, and should, mean cheaper internet if you’re one of the millions of Australians still using ADSL or another service on Telstra’s fixed copper network.
Network image via Shutterstock
ACCC’s Fixed Line Services draft declaration will, if it’s not substantially altered, take effect from September this year. It supersedes the ACCC’s previous decision from March, where it said prices should fall a mere 0.7 per cent, and will mean that the four million end users that have fixed-copper-line internet connections through Telstra’s wholesale customers like iiNet, TPG and Dodo should see their monthly costs fall to reflect the one-off drop.
Telstra actually wanted prices to rise by 7.2 per cent, and said that it would incur higher costs from trying to maintain the fixed-line network while more and more end users abandoned the aging copper and switched to various forms of the NBN. The competitors of Australia’s number-one telco, though, are happy with the decision, saying that Telstra has already been compensated with its $11.2 billion agreement with NBN Co.
The end result of this competitive wrangling from the ACCC is that your internet bill should get cheaper come September. [ACCC]