Feds set to release NBN plan, detailing its viable and profit points
Weeks after the federal government allowed some glimpses on the $36 billion national broadband network business plan, its full contents would be finally revealed on Monday, which experts said should contain the project's actual scope, viability and profitability.
Also expected from the NBN plan is NBN Co's full cost determination of accessing the new telecommunication infrastructure for wholesale, which is seen as the major factor that would influence the service's retail offering costs.
NBN's ultimate pricing, however, needs to consider too the project reviews coming from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which are also scheduled for release today and expected to touch on the broadband service's fixed line pricing and number of necessary interconnection points.
NBN Co, the company set to front for the project, has submitted the project's blueprint to federal authorities last month but Prime Minister Julia Gillard opted to hold off its release pending a full review by the cabinet and the ACCC's recommendatory report.
A report by the Sydney Morning Herald gave indications that monthly wholesale rental costs could be slashed by as much as $20, which is based on ACCC's re-evaluated cost of Telstra Corporation's fixed line assets that the regulatory agency pegged at $7.5 billion, coming from a high of $23 billion.
Prior to its official report on the NBN project, the ACCC has earlier called on Ms Gillard to junk NBN Co's plan of establishing only 14 exchanges for internet service providers to tap into the network.
According to the commission, NBN Co's approach could result to considerable immediate savings but such limited interconnection points could render Australia's existing broadband infrastructure useless, which is a far more expensive eventuality.
The country's major telecommunications firms such as Telstra and Optus are projecting that at least 200 exchanges for NBN must be established while Ms Gillard is reportedly considering some 120 interconnection points upon the start of the construction phase of the project.
An estimated amount of $50 billion would be poured on the NBN project, with most of the fund to be eaten up by construction costs while some $14 billion would be allocated for compensation to Telstra for its expected losses on fixed line services and the telco's infrastructure sharing agreement with the federal government.