NBN Co to start charging for 'no fault found' callouts

NBN Co will begin charging retail service providers it if sends technicians out to investigate a potential network fault but no fault is found.

The provision to charge for 'no fault found' truck rolls is already in NBN Co's wholesale broadband agreement – the overarching document covering the provision of NBN services to RSPs – but NBN Co has to date waived the fees.

But this is set to change according to the company's latest integrated product roadmap, which shows that “no fault found service management charging" is scheduled for introduction in the second quarter of 2018.

An NBN Co spokesman told iTnews that the change meant "that for an NBN truck roll where no fault is identified in relation to the NBN network we will charge the cost of that process to the RSP.”

It would be up to RSPs whether they pass on the fee to the internet end user.

NBN Co charges a ‘labour rate’ for a minimum of two hours work for any truck roll where no fault is found.

The labour rate is $75.00 per hour or part thereof for non-satellite services and $98.00 for satellite services.

iTnews understands that NBN Co reached agreement on ending the fee waiver in discussion with RSPs.

NBN Co said in its WBA that RSPs have mechanisms available to them to dispute a determination to charge fees.