ACCC allows providers to pass on internet tax to consumers

A man and power lines are reflected in a Telstra poster adorning a public telephone in Sydney, Australia Reuters/David Gray

The Australian Consumer & Competition Commission (ACCC) declared on Friday that major high-speed Internet service providers in the country such as Telstra and TPG can pass on the federal government's proposed broadband tax to customers. The competition watchdog has completed a ruling that non-NBN high-speed internet providers are allowed to set the prices of their service in line with those on the national broadband network.

ACCC, in its final ruling on the regulated wholesale pricing for non-NBN high-speed services, permitted providers to pass the broadband tax to customers. In a statement, ACCC chairman Rod Sims explained the ruling, saying their view is that the regulated prices based on the NBN prices may not have allowed these network providers to recover reasonable costs if they were to shoulder the proposed RBS charge.

Sims added that one of the main goals of ACCC was to ensure that internet retailers and customers supplied via the non-NBN networks will not be worse off. It sets the initial wholesale prices for access to NBN-like services at $27.00 per port monthly and $8.00 and $17.50 per Mbps per month for aggregation to a point of interconnection (POI) for all providers aside from Telstra.

As for Telstra, the provider’s wholesale superfast broadband prices for this year until 2018 was set at $16.03 per port monthly (Zone 1) and $21.10 per port per month (Zone 2) and $29.27 per Mbps per month for aggregation. RSPs also need to buy Telstra’s wholesale line rental service for an added $20.69 monthly. The difference in prices is due to the cost of separating Telstra’s fibre networks from its legacy networks.

Earlier this month, the Turnbull government announced plans to introduce legislation that would levy a $7.10 minimum monthly broadband tax for high-speed fixed-line providers. The amount would add to the future cost of the fixed wireless as well as satellite portions of the NBN.

But OPENetworks, LBN Co and CNT Corp have all opposed the idea of having to shoulder the tax. They argued it would cut their operational revenues by as much as 30 percent and warned it could even go higher in the future "without reference to our costs or ability to pay.”

Additionally, the three operators claimed the NBN Co's wholesale prices were unlikely to factor in the tax."The notion that NBN Co prices include the RBS levy is misconceived and untrue,” they said, as per Connecting The Australian Channel. For other ACCC news, watch the video below.

Topshop Australia enters voluntary administration; Sir Philip Green's Arcadia takes over