Australia - Regulator has been given additional funding to boost activities on national broadband network

[it wire] Impending telecommunications structural reform might be aimed at reducing regulatory complexity, but that hasn't stopped the competition watchdog being given an additional $24 million Budget boost to manage the new issues and new complexities that will arrive with the National Broadband Network.

As part of an NBN-related administrative package, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has been given the additional funding over five years to establish and administer the proposed regulatory arrangements for the open access National Broadband Network.

The ACCC, which has regulatory oversight of the telecommunications sector, will use the funding to design and implement specific access arrangements for the NBN Company, and to carry out assessments of price and non-price terms and conditions for access to the network.

The funding also covers the commission's role as a primary source of advice for Government on broader NBN-related regulatory issues.

Treasury said the full $24 million cost of the initiative would be fully recovered by the Australian Media and Communications Authority (ACMA) through the collection of carrier license charges under the Telecommunications Act.

Unsurprisingly, the two federal departments with portfolio responsibility for NBN roll-out – Lindsay Tanner's Finance and Stephen Conroy's Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy – were also handed additional Budget funding of $15 million over four years for NBN administrative issues.

Of this, $12.9 million goes to DBCDE and $2.1 to Finance with the spending earmarked for policy and regulatory support for the roll-out; to oversee the Regional Backbone Blackspots roll-out; and to manage the Commonwealth’s shareholding in the NBN Company.

ACCC gets additional $24m to manage NBN issues