Wholesale communications, internet and data aggregator ispONE is against the Australian government's decision to implement 120 Points of Interconnect (POI). According to the company, the POI will lead to increased and varied wholesale pricing for all retail service providers (RSP) nationwide, and will decrease competition amongst the smaller end of the sector, and those RSPs operating in regional and rural areas.

The NBN Co's decision to put in place 120 POI's is a negative for the industry, said ispONE managing director Zac Swindells.

"Despite the dominant infrastructure players being up in arms about stranded assets and sunk infrastructure costs, the original proposed 14 POI's would have led to smaller players having an opportunity to compete on a level playing field and reduce costs associated with infrastructure. Now this is not the case.

Mr Swindells said ispONE is of a similar opinion to some of Australia's leading RSPs such as Internode, and advocates having a POI in every capital city with a secondary POI as a back-up.

"The current model has the vast majority of POI in Metropolitan areas which is unnecessary. To have additional points of interconnect will price out players from the market given the costs of rolling out backhaul."

"The decision to move ahead with the alternative 120 POI with 980 fibre servicing areas (FSA) by the NBN Co includes the cost of rolling out backhaul, hardware and collocation facilities to these areas as outlined in the NBN Co's corporate plan released today.

"With the final decision now made, and the associated roll-out cost for RSPs expected to run into the millions of dollars whether you are a small or large player, the focus for ispONE is supporting our existing customers and the broader RSP industry to remain competitive and sustainable.

"ispONE primarily services the small and medium operators, and RSPs in regional and rural markets, and a higher cost of entry and an increase in related infrastructure costs will depress competition, however, the level of associated costs will mean that larger RSPs are also affected," Mr. Swindells added.