The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has announced that it plans to continue regulating Australia’s wholesale ADSL service for five more years.

As the NBN continues to rollout across the country, the ACCC believes continuing to regulate the wholesale ADSL service will promote competition between providers and benefit customers who can currently only access broadband services.

“Continuing regulation will ensure network providers continue to have access to Telstra’s copper network at reasonable prices,” said ACCC commissioner Cristina Cifuentes.

“This will encourage them to continue competing in the retail market to develop and offer different ADSL broadband products to meet the needs of customers as they prepare to shift to the NBN.”

The ACCC first declared the wholesale ADSL service in February 2012. When a service is declared, a network owner is required to provide service access upon request. If a commercial agreement can’t be reached, the ACCC will determine regulated price and non-price terms.