Independent Review – Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
On 19 July 2021, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) concluded its inquiry into the Superfast Broadband Access Service (SBAS) and Local Bitstream Access Service (LBAS), and released a final decision on its findings. The ACCC has decided to:
- extend the declaration of the SBAS for a further five years until 28 July 2026;
- combine the existing declarations under a single SBAS declaration that applies to all non-NBN superfast networks; and
- remove the previous minimum 25Mbps download speed requirement.
Continued declaration of the SBAS will enable a retailer of broadband services to gain access to a wholesale superfast broadband service at regulated price and non-price terms and conditions where the retailer cannot reach a commercial agreement with a provider. This ACCC’s decision varies the current SBAS declaration, and combines it with the related LBAS declaration under a single instrument. The declaration will apply to networks built, upgraded or altered both before and after 1 January 2011, and simplifies access regulations applicable to wholesale superfast broadband networks.
Consistent with the Government’s Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) requirements, the final decision has been certified by the ACCC as meeting the requirements of a RIS. The Office of Best Practice Regulation (OBPR) does not assess the quality of independent reviews and RIS-like documents used in lieu of a RIS, but does assess whether the options analysed in the independent review are relevant to the regulatory proposal. The OBPR assessed the options analysed in the independent review as sufficiently relevant to the regulatory proposal.
The ACCC has estimated average annual regulatory costs of $0.047 million.
Please note: any accessibility queries should be directed to the ACCC.