Martin Kovacs

ACCAN’s submission “highlights that information provided to consumers about broadband speeds is often confusing and can also be misleading as claimed speeds frequently don’t match reality”.

“Broadband speed claims are often confusing or misleading for consumers with the use of terms like ‘speeds up to’,” ACCAN CEO Teresa Corbin commented.

“We fully support the ACCC’s investigation into this issue and urge the commission to implement guidelines and other measures that will result in clearer information for consumers.”

ACCAN states that greater information is needed to help consumers compare and choose the service best suited to their needs, diagnose faults more accurately, and seek recourse when a service does not meet expected standards.

“One of the issues that ACCAN identified is that the term ‘speed’ is simplistically used to describe the performance of a service,” ACCAN states. “A number of issues that consumers encounter are often described as ‘speed’ issues, the solution to which is often presented as faster speeds.”

ACCAN states that other factors affecting service performance are missed under this approach.

“ACCAN asserts that consumers should have access to information which helps them compare services and describes how the service will work for them,” Corbin stated.

The trial also saw a 5 Gbps peak aggregate speed achieved over 70 metres of twisted-pair copper, which NBN Co states “would be roughly three times the average length of copper lead-in from pit to premises”.

NBN Co, which conducted the trial at its headquarters in North Sydney with Nokia in September, has become the third operator in the world to run a lab trial of the tech, following in the footsteps of BT last year and Deutsche Telekom in February.

NBN Co has been looking at the potential of G.fast technology in its multi-technology mix rollout, yesterday pointing to new research showing G.fast is set for growth around the world in the coming years.

Last month, NBN Co advised that it will be rolling out fibre-to-the-distribution point technology, also known as fibre-to-the-curb (FTTC), to up to potentially 700,000 premises across the country, which it has stated gives “an ideal platform for potentially deploying both future G.fast and XG.FAST services”.

XG.FAST could be deployed in scenarios including multi-dwelling units with fibre-to-the-building, or via a distribution point unit in a FTTC-based network, NBN Co notes.

“XG.FAST gives us the potential ability to deliver multi-gigabit speeds over copper lines – virtually on a par with what is currently available on fibre-to-the-premises – but at a lower cost and time to deploy,” Dennis Steiger, NBN Co CTO, commented.

“Although the use of light in order to transmit data can be limited in comparison to radio waves, there is a great amount of possibilities that can be developed with the proper use of this technology,” Velmenni states.

Jugnu is Velmenni’s next generation of smart LED bulbs, transferring data through visible light.

“We are doing a few pilot projects within different industries where we can utilise the VLC (visible light communication) technology,” Velmenni CEO Deepak Solanki told IBTimes.

“Currently we have designed a smart lighting solution for an industrial environment where the data communication is done through light. We are also doing a pilot project with a private client where we are setting up a Li-Fi network to access the internet in their office space.”

With Malcolm Turnbull having been elevated to prime minister, there has been speculation over the potential impact of the change of leadership on the NBN rollout.

Ovum government technology principal analyst Al Blake last week noted that with Turnbull now leading the government it “may allow for an NBN recalibration”.

“Given the political realities, it would be impossible to go back to the original Labor plan – but we may see the proportion technologies slide further towards FTTP, which would mean world-call broadband performance for a greater percentage of Australians,” Blake commented.

Fifield told RN Drive the government is “not fixated with any particular technology to rollout the NBN”.

“In a sense, we’re technology agnostic, and what that means is that over time, there’s the capacity for an evolution in terms of where the balance of technological solutions lies,” Fifield stated.

“I’m not indicating anything by that other than to say that we’re technology agnostic and where the business leads, is where the business will go in terms of the solutions that it provides to the community.”

The SAU establishes part of the NBN regulatory framework, including provisions to encourage NBN Co to incur expenditure efficiently.

“The revenue control provisions in the SAU set out the method for determining the amount of revenue NBN Co is allowed to earn each financial year to recover its costs of providing services,” ACCC commissioner Cristina Cifuentes explained.

“Having assessed NBN Co’s proposal against the methodology in the SAU, the ACCC has made the draft decision to accept the values proposed by NBN Co for determining allowable revenues for 2014-15.”

Where NBN Co is unable to recover the allowed revenue in a particular year, any shortfall is put into its cost recovery account, the ACCC advised, with NBN Co to have the opportunity to recover its accumulated losses over time as the take-up of NBN services increases.

The ACCC is proposing to accept NBN Co’s actual capital and operating expenditure for the year, while also deciding to accept the proposed values for regulated assets and accumulated losses.

The SAU also includes a cap on the prices that NBN Co is allowed to charge for its services, with Cifuentes stating the ACCC is satisfied prices “did not exceed the applicable maximum regulated prices in 2014-15”.