Internet Australia has called on the ACCC to take a long hard look at the NBN as part of its communications market sector study, announced last month. The move coincides with release by the ACCC of a discussion paper seeking feedback for the study.

Internet Australia CEO Laurie Patton said: “It is our view that under the Government’s current directions the NBN will not be fit-for-purpose within 10 to 15 years.

So it can only be hoped that the study will result in a much needed re-think about the communications infrastructure required for Australia to actually become an innovation nation.”

Internet Australia has recently called on the Government to review the performance of the NBN, citing concerns about the rate of subscriber take-up and a lack of accurate information about broadband performance and has consistently argued in favour of fibre rather than re-using copper and HFC networks.

The ACCC has also proposed a broadband performance monitoring and reporting program. Patton said he expected this to be considered by the study because it would “once and for all establish the speed differentials between the copper-based FTTN network and the technically superior FTTP network.” – Stuart Corner