NBN Co today released its latest Wholesale Broadband Agreement (WBA5) Consultation Paper to Retail Service Providers (RSPs). The paper considers how NBN Co’s proposed variation to the Special Access Undertaking (SAU) could be implemented, subject to acceptance by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). The paper also presents some additional non-SAU-related changes and improvements. 

The consultation paper proposes commercial and operational implementation strategies for WBA5 and requests feedback from RSPs on the following items:

1. Service Levels and Performance Objective changes, including changes to the FTTN and HFC service fault dropout threshold; shortened duration for issuance of advice to RSPs on completed connections; further enhancements to nbn Ethernet Service Levels; updates to the network utilisation management performance objective to align with the proposed SAU variation, and improved nbn Network Platform Interfacing Service (NPIS) performance objectives and operational targets
2. Governance, including communication and escalation commitments and pathways
3. Other SAU-related changes, including amendments to ensure changes to pricing and service standards under the SAU can flow through to the WBA, and alignment of the maximum term of the WBA5 Standard Form of Access Agreement (SFAA) with the term of the relevant SAU regulatory cycle
4. Non-SAU-related changes, including relaxation of downgrade thresholds on Fibre Connect; simplification of some change processes for the nbn Ethernet Fair Use Policy; billing process improvements; changes to interest on overdue accounts, and FTTC Network Connection Device (NCD) and HFC Network Termination Device (NTD) supply terms.  

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 three months following the acceptance of the SAU.

NBN Co will conduct a webinar with RSPs participating in the WBA5 consultation process on Thursday 15 December 2022. The company thanked RSPs for their feedback on the previous WBA5 consultation paper, which closed on Tuesday 6 December 2022. It has requested feedback on the questions raised in today’s WBA5 consultation paper by 5pm (AEST) on Friday 27 January 2023.