The consumer watchdog, the ACCC, is scrutinising proposed changes to Telstra’s NBN migration plan to assess whether they offer adequate protections for customers to maintain access to the services delivered by the National Broadband Network, as part of the industry and public consultation process.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission announced on Friday it is seeking feedback on a discussion paper detailing Telstra’s proposed variation to the NBN Migration Plan to facilitate the rollout of fibre to the curb technology (FTTC).
The rollout of FTTC is planned to commence in 2018.
Commenting on the protections for Telstra customers in the telco’s migration plan, ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said, “Once the FTTC technology is ready to be deployed, the migration plan is intended to promote efficient disconnections and minimal disruption in the switchover to NBN-based services.
{loadposition peter}“It is important that the existing service is not disconnected without the customer’s consent until the NBN-based service is successfully activated.”
In 2015 the ACCC approved a revised migration plan which detailed how Telstra will progressively migrate existing customers’ telephone and internet services to multi-technology mix NBN services.
And in July 2016 Sims said the changes to its migration plan proposed by Telstra would allow retail service providers more time to complete their migration activities before managed disconnection, “and are intended to promote a more positive experience for customers as they move to NBN services”.
The ACCC is required to undertake a 28-day consultation period on Telstra’s variation to its migration plan and feedback to the discussion paper released on Friday have to be submitted by 5 January 2018.