ACCC revealed that it has given a formal warning to NBN Co for discriminating between retail service providers (RSPs) for the supply of upgraded NBN infrastructure to business customers.
The ACCC has accepted a commitment from NBN to take measures to avoid repeat of such conduct. ACCC has prohibited NBN from discriminating between RSPs in the supply of regulated wholesale services, and related activities.
The ACCC is satisfied that NBN offered materially different commercial terms to different RSPs as it upgraded NBN infrastructure to support business-grade services from January 2018.
NBN provided one RSP with indicative pricing information for its new Enterprise Ethernet service months before it gave the same information to other RSPs.
NBN admitted it did not have appropriate processes in place to ensure it was complying with its transparency and non-discrimination obligations.
“Market feedback suggests that NBN’s entry into the wholesale enterprise market increased competition, particularly in areas where Telstra is the only other fixed-line infrastructure provider,” ACCC Chair Rod Sims said.
In June 2018, NBN announced wholesale business product and service offerings, designed for RSPs that supply services to large corporations and government entities.
NBN’s new offerings include Enterprise Ethernet. The offerings include the installation of fibre infrastructure where the current or proposed NBN technology must be upgraded in order to support the supply of these services, including Enterprise Ethernet, and NBN’s existing Ethernet TC‑2 service.