NBN Co attempt to charge more in country than city lasts less than a day following government intervention

Updated

NBN Co has ruled out introducing new pricing which would have charged regional users more than those in the city.

Key points: NBN Co backs down on pricing change within 24 hours

Proposal would have ended equivalent pricing between wireless and fixed line connections

About face followed discussions between NBN Co and the Government

The confirmation came less than 24 hours after the proposal was first flagged by NBN Co, and followed a terse statement issued by the minister in charge.

Communications Minister Mitch Fifield said the Government would ensure equivalent pricing on comparable fixed line and fixed wireless products would continue.

"Labor have claimed that NBN intends to charge more for fixed wireless services compared to fixed line services," he said.

"This is not the case. This will not occur."

In a Parliamentary Committee on Wednesday night, NBN Co chief financial officer Stephen Rue revealed that new fixed wireless pricing would commence from Monday.

A plan with a monthly wholesale price of $45 in cities was set to attract a charge of $65 for those on fixed wireless technology.

On Wednesday morning Labor MPs held a press conference in Parliament calling on the Government to reverse the proposal, prompting the response from the Minister.

About face

NBN Co chief executive Bill Morrow sought to clarify the confusion today.

"There is no $65 charge for a fixed wireless 50-meg[abit per second plan], that was a 'consultation' issue," he said.

"It's a minor point on there, it's easy to just wipe off so there is no difference at that price point for fixed wireless compared to fixed line technologies."

Labor's communications spokeswoman Michelle Rowland said this was "utter chaos" and "a humiliation for Mitch Fifield".

The issue was originally flagged by the ABC in June.

Around 45 minutes after Ms Rowland held her media conference, at 10:38am, NBN Co made an important change to its website on a page titled "Notes from Joint Standing Committee: August 2018".

Under the original headline "Opening statement from NBN Co Chief Financial Officer Stephen Rue" a sentence was added around three-quarters of the way down.

"We are consulting on a "Max" bundle at around the same price point. We hope these discussions can be concluded in around nine months' time," it read.

However, as is clear from recordings of the speech, Mr Rue never made this comment in his opening statement to the committee.

There did not appear to be any other changes to the speech that Mr Rue made to the committee last night.

After being questioned by the ABC as to why NBN Co had inserted a statement Mr Rue never made, NBN Co said the change was made to "provide further clarity on the future direction of the fixed wireless product given the attention on Stephen's comments from the Joint Standing Committee."

Further, NBN Co said "the notes appeared under the blog section of the NBN website and point out that they were amended."

Although there was a note at the bottom of the statement to say the statement had been updated, there was no indication what had been changed. Nor that the changes were inconsistent with what Mr Rue had actually said.

NBN Co has further amended the statement on its website. It no longer claims to be reflective of the opening statement of the CFO.

Around a quarter of a million Australians, mostly in regional areas, connect to the NBN through fixed wireless technology.

According to results released today NBN Co earned almost $2 billion in 2017/18.

The cost per premises for fixed wireless connections rose from $3,645 to $3,757 over the year, partly due to technology upgrades to address congestion.

Although pricing changes have been scrapped, NBN Co is still considering introducing a new fair use policy to help manage the limited capacity of wireless towers.

Topics: government-and-politics, wireless-communication, internet-technology, australia

First posted