An unexpected move by the ACCC could see the value of Telstra's copper network change and the outcome could be confusion. If the copper network becomes more valuable for Telstra over the next 5 years, will this reduce Telstra's need to participate in the national broadband network? Competitors Optus, Primus and others are likely to oppose the copper access pricing change in submissions to the ACCC.
The government might be asking what is happening and why is ti happening now. But when the ACCC is asked for the reason behind its proposal the answer may be as simple as the ACCC is trying to look at ways to enhance competition during the period of the national broadband network rollout. The answer to this question will not be known until more details is known about the national broadband network and have it will be priced.
Whatever the reason for the ACCC's actions, analysts are starting to ask for more details on how future competition between the fixed copper, fibre and wireless networks will be priced and the rationale for dividing Australia into two regions rather than the original four.
Is this a move towards providing industry participants with motivation to provide more services into Zone A, which is the majority of the population areas. The answer may be yes, but it is likely that further modelling will be necessary. One of the driving forces with this move may be the rollout of the Telstra 3.5G network which Telstra claims now covers about 90% of the Australian population. The Telstra wireless mobile network now provides reasonable data carriage capability and offers data over most of the Zone A region.
The telecommunication and data market has just taken another interesting twist and anyone trying to predict what is the clear path to success over the next 10 years will be slightly confused by the latest events.