NBN Co wants block on Telstra disconnection processes

NBN Co is attempting to have the competition watchdog block several disconnection measures that Telstra re-drafted last month.

The company lodged a letter with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) late Friday expressing disappointment in the watchdog's plan to accept the re-drafted measures.

The ACCC refused to do so in February and sent Telstra back to the drawing table. The carrier re-submitted in April, and the ACCC indicated it was "minded to accept these resubmitted ... measures, subject to feedback from interested parties"

However, NBN Co said the re-drafted measures were still inconsistent with terms in the definitive agreements between it and Telstra, and further that the re-drafted measures failed to address concerns the ACCC had previously raised about them.

"NBN Co has previously articulated these concerns and is disappointed they have not been addressed," head of regulatory affairs & industry analysis, Caroline Lovell, said. (pdf)

Lovell said the inconsistencies had the potential to delay migration of end users from Telstra's copper and HFC networks onto the NBN, and to "delay the structural separation of Telstra and the achievement of the Government's policy objectives".

NBN Co indicated that specific details of its concerns were contractual in nature, and were therefore not published.