Comment invited on Teltra’s ‘pull through’ process

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is inviting comment on a discussion paper on Telstra’s migration plan.

The measures relate to a specific process that will be used by NBN Co in limited circumstances to connect premises to the National Broadband Network. NBN Co says in some cases it may need to use an existing copper or HFC line to pull the NBN fibre through the conduit leading from the street to the premises in order to connect the premises to the NBN.

Known as the ‘pull through’ process, this will result in a temporary outage to the existing communications services.

Under the migration plan, Telstra is required to develop processes for collecting the consent of its wholesale customers to pull through lines over which they are providing services, and notifying wholesale customers if the pull through process is not successful. These processes may have important implications for the ability of wholesale customers to minimise disruption to the supply of communication services to consumers.

Interested parties are invited to comment on whether Telstra’s proposed processes comply with the regulatory requirements. Submissions should be submitted in writing by 5 pm on 1 February 2013.

The discussion paper is available here.