NBN Co gears up for SAU implementation with WBA5 consultation

NBN Co is preparing to implement its revised SAU through the release of the fifth iteration of its wholesale broadband agreement.

The National Broadband Network (NBN) builder's proposed revised SAU was released in August - which featured  price cuts, caps, limitations and a conditional expiry - after it acknowledged the criticisms of its its previously proposed SAU variation for not reflecting “the changes in the policy landscape and operating environment since the current variation was lodged,” according to government ministers.

While NBN Co is planning to lodge the SAU with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in November - a month later than it initially said - it has released a consultation paper on WBA5, which focuses on how its revised SAU can be implemented.

"We are committed to working constructively with the ACCC and the industry to arrive at an accepted SAU variation as early in 2023 as possible to achieve the objective set out by our shareholder ministers," said Will Irving, chief strategy and transformation officer at NBN Co. 

"We have also committed to implementing the new wholesale pricing by 1 July 2023 if the SAU variation is accepted by 31 March 2023. If the SAU variation is accepted after 31 March 2023, we will still commit to implementing new pricing within three months of acceptance of the SAU variation."

At an overview, WBA5 will focus on utilisation-based billing, connectivity virtual circuit (CVC) inclusions adjustment, voice-only bundled offering, billing price configuration changes, overbooking of CVC TC-4 on network-network interface (NNI) and overage waivers.

The reason why the NBN builder is revealing its WBA5 before it has lodged the SAU with the consumer watchdog is due to retail service providers (RSP) requesting the opportunity to provide feedback for consultation as early as possible and in consideration of having enough time to implement the proposed SAU variation commitments.

"The company's parallel WBA5 consultation process is intended to enable a contractual offer to be presented to RSPs for negotiation and agreement in time for NBN Co and RSPs to implement a new SAU by the later of 1 July 2023, or within three months of the SAU's acceptance," NBN Co said.

Interested parties can respond to the WBA5 consultation paper from now until 6 December.

After the WBA5 consultation period, NBN Co also plans to release a follow-up consultation paper by 16 December, which it said is "likely" to include details on change right amendments to facilitate the varied SAU's regulatory reviews, network utilisation rules, SAU-driven Service Levels Schedule changes and the standard form of access agreement (SFAA) term.