Morrow told the Australian Financial Review that any changes could include a means whereby dissatisfied customers could have a better idea about the kind of service they could expect. He said a review of the pricing model was underway.
On Monday, iTWire carried two reports, wherein a number of technical experts pointed out that switching to a full-fibre rollout for the remainder of the network would cost about as much as moving from the current FttN technology to FttDP.
NBN Co was asked for its response to this, and other suggestions, shortly after the reports were published. The company has not responded to iTWire's invitation until now.
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Bill Morrow: "NBN Co has an image problem."
He said a review could mean that customers were assured of a minimum level of service so that they knew what was possible when they subscribed to a given level of service.
"What we are considering, and we are in consultation, is looking at a restructuring of the pricing mechanism," Morrow said.
"I am sympathetic with the many smaller retailers, in particular, who say I am stuck in this price war and I can't step up and raise my price to the end users.
"So, we are thinking can we restructure the CVC (Connectivity Virtual Circuit charge) and the AVC (monthly access charge) to have a minimum assurance of a certain quality of product ... do we introduce a media streaming product?"
This is not the first time Morrow has made such promises. About a month ago, he made similar statements to the same newspaper.
Morrow denied that the CVC charge was resulting in slow speeds, with retail service providers buying less bandwidth than to provide customers with acceptable speeds.
"Most of the marketing attention is on price, not what kind of speed you are going to get," he said, claiming that three-quarters of those who had signed up did not what speed tier they had selected.
Instead, he blamed the slow speeds on a "land grab phenomenon where retailers are chasing market share and classically during a land grab phase you get more discussion on price and less discussion about quality".
Update, 26 July: Reacting to Morrow's statements, Labor's shadow communications spokesperson Michelle Rowland said: "(Prime Minister) Malcolm Turnbull’s failed multi-technology mix has infused an enormous amount of long-term cost and complexity into the NBN.
"If we take a 10-, 20- or 30-year view of the current NBN it is clear the multi-technology mix does not pass the economics test – it costs more to maintain, it delivers a poorer consumer experience, it will waste billions in upgrade costs that could be avoided, it is more exposed to mobile competition, and it infuses an enormous amount of systems and migration complexity into the NBN project. None of these costs are reflected in the $49 billion price tag.
"These twin failures... in engineering and economics are forcing NBN Co to try and move the revenue needle on a second-rate product. There is a Mexican stand-off taking place over price – all the while consumers are stranded in the middle and no one is listening to them."
