TPG stops selling NBN FTTB rival

TPG has withdrawn its fibre-to-the-basement NBN competitor from sale after the federal government introduced new regulations forcing the carrier to structurally separate its retail and wholesale businesses.

TPG this week advised on its website that it had been forced to stop selling its FTTB product due to an insufficient amount of time given by the Government to meet the first of its new requirements by the stated date of January 1 2015.

"... until we complete the required changes we are required to remove our FTTB products from sale," TPG advised.

The carrier did not provide a timeframe for when the product would become available for sale again.

A spokesperson for TPG said the company would reintroduce its FTTB retail plans as well as a wholesale offering in the "not too distant future".

The Government took action to limit competition against the national broadband network in October after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ruled TPG had not breached NBN anti-cherry picking legislations with its FTTB rollout.

Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull introduced a new carrier license condition for providers like TPG on December 14, which required TPG to open its FTTB network to others for wholesale use by January 1.

TPG will also be required to structurally separate its retail and wholesale businesses by July 1 this year.

The ACCC will monitor such separations, and will also have the ability to allow functional - rather than structural  - separation for carriers in certain conditions.