The ACCC's communications sector market study draft report published earlier this week makes several references to the possible need for the Commonwealth Government to provide debt relief to NBN Co so that it can meet its responsibility to provide services to "uneconomic parts of Australia."

The Australian Greens intend to investigate the legislative options for such a write-down of NBN Co's debt.

"Rolling out the NBN has put too much pressure on recovering NBN Co's costs rather than providing an essential service to Australians. We need to stop thinking of the Internet as a profit-making endeavour and start treating it as an important utility like water or electricity," said Greens communications spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

"The ACCC today has said what industry and consumers have been crying out for. A clear path forward is writing down the debt and moving on with providing world-class internet for all Australians.

"The business model was wrong from the beginning, contributing to ballooning debt for a service Australians are losing faith in. Neither the ALP, or the LNP Government, are willing to acknowledge they stuffed up and the debt needs to be written down. Australians deserve better.

"Polling released today shows a staggering 93 per cent of Australians consider the internet is an essential service; well, it's time the LNP Government caught up with the public and supported measures being taken to prioritise this service.

"As a member of the Joint Standing Committee on the national broadband network, I'll be putting this issue on the agenda to examine a restructure of NBN Co, giving industry, NBN Co and the ACCC the opportunity to rationally discuss this problem and find the best way forward.

"Our world is becoming more connected every day and we are lagging behind as a nation. It is unsurprising that half of Australians have lost hope that the NBN will meet the country's future internet need – when it's not meeting our current needs."

The ACCC report also raised direct funding arrangements for non-commercial services or an asset revaluation ("We note that private sector firms that fail to meet rate of return targets regularly write-down the carrying value of their assets") as other ways the problem could be addressed.

The Competitive Carriers' Coalition and the Communications Alliance both welcomed the draft report.

As previously reported, Communications Alliance chief executive John Stanton said: "Without commenting on the respective merits of potential actions to achieve this, the objective of providing NBN Co with 'greater flexibility regarding its cost recovery' is certainly an issue worth exploring." 

Image: The Greens (CC BY-SA 2.5 AU, cropped)