Australia's competition regulator will allow non-NBN high-speed internet providers to pass on federal government's proposed $7-a-month levy for regional services to customers.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has finalised a ruling that non-NBN high-speed internet providers will set the prices of their service in line with those on the national broadband network.
The regulator has shifted stance on the cost of the federal government's proposed Regional Broadband Scheme charge - scheduled to come into force in July - under which urban users will subsidise expensive regional NBN services.
"Consistent with our draft decision, the prices have been set in line with NBN prices and will change with NBN prices over time," ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.
"We expect that these price changes will help deliver better service performance for customers of non-NBN networks as they will allow retailers to provide faster services at a lower average price."
In a change from a draft ruling released in January, the ACCC has allowed non-NBN networks to pass on Regional Broadband Scheme charge to customers, following arguments from smaller networks that the levy could eat up up to 30 per cent of operating revenue.
"Our view is that the regulated prices based on the NBN prices may not have allowed these network providers to recover their reasonable costs if they were also required to absorb the proposed RBS charge," Mr Sims said.
Non-NBN service providers largely supply new housing estates and central city apartment buildings and include Telstra, TPG, Vocus, LBN Co, Opticomm, and OPENetworks.
The initial prices will be $27 per port per month plus between $8.00 and $17.50 per Megabits per second per month.
Prices for Telstra's fibre network range between $16.03 and $21.10 per port per month and $29.27 per Mbps per month for aggregation.
Prices for Telstra's fibre network are set differently due to the cost of separating these networks from Telstra's legacy network systems and the prospect that the fibre networks may be transferred to the NBN, the regulator said.
The decision appeared to weigh on key telecom stocks, with Vocus shares down 2.5 per cent at $2.97. Telstra shares lost 1.2 per cent at $6.05, while TPG Telecom slipped 0.9 per cent to $6.05 each.
