Published on the 12/04/2016 | Written by Beverley Head

The $1.6 billion deal between Nbn Co and Telstra, intended to speed the rollout of the national broadband network has raised concerns from the competition watchdog…

Nbn Co, which is charged with rolling out Australia’s national broadband network, is racing to meet its connection targets. As part of that it has inked a deal with Telstra which will provide design and part construction services that will allow Australians in the footprint of its cable network (hybrid fibre coax or HFC) to use that network as the basis for their NBN services.

It will be the service offered to around three million homes. Nbn has already signed a similar – though much smaller arrangement – with Optus, to also leverage its HFC network as part of the NBN infrastructure.

While Nbn Co did not mention the quantum of the deal in its announcement, Telstra crowed that it was worth $1.6 billion over its lifetime, until 2020.

But competition Tsar Rod Sims isn’t yet convinced.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair, Sims yesterday said that: “We have raised several concerns with Telstra and Nbn Co, including that Telstra may receive a competitive advantage if it has access to better information than other service providers or if it is able to use infrastructure built for the NBN network before that infrastructure becomes available to other retail service providers.”

That’s precisely the concern of the Competitive Carriers Coalition which yesterday also raised concerns that there was a potential competitive advantage for Telstra as a result of the arrangement.

Sims said that the ACCC was negotiating with Nbn Co and Telstra about the way the companies will operate and was considering a number of their proposals.

“It is important that Telstra doesn’t get a head-start selling retail services over the NBN just because its technical expertise is being used in the construction and maintenance of the NBN,” Sims said.

The main game now for Nbn Co seems to be speed of roll-out, cobbling together all sorts of different technologies in order to get faster broadband to consumers and businesses as quickly as it can. The company’s CEO Bill Morrow said this week that the network was now available to two million Australian homes – though fewer than half that number have yet connected.