DIGITAL Tasmania claims that an ACCC decision to regulate the cost of internet is uncompetitive, resulting in increased costs for consumers.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
“Overall, high transmission costs to Tasmania result in less choice for consumers with only major brands being able to offer a service for the same price and performance as elsewhere because their other customers pay a cross subsidy,” Digital Tasmania spokesperson Andrew Connor said.
“What we're also seeing at the moment is some of those major brands may not have the necessary capacity for customers at peak times, a further hindrance for Tasmanian customers.”
The ACCC released its final decision on prices for regulated transmission services last Thursday, which confirmed a higher price for data transmission costs between Tasmania and the mainland.
The final decision saw the uplift price of internet raised from 40 per cent to 140 per cent.
A spokesperson for the ACCC said the uplift in prices to Tasmania reflected the risks associated with running an undersea cable.
“The ACCC notes that while the Basslink outage results from an issue with the power cable, it has affected the provision of services over fibre optic cable for Basslink customers,” the spokesperson said.
Backhaul data services are currently provided by the two undersea Telstra cables and the Basslink cable, which is currently under repair.
TasICT chief executive officer William Kestin said Tasmania needed additional cables in order to provide backup capacity, promote fair competition and lower prices.
“From an industry perspective it is the most expensive piece of backhaul in Australia,” he said.
“As long as we haven’t got the additional cabling, we will continue to have to pay more for the internet services.”
“What we need is a submarine cable that will run to either Sydney or to Perth or preferably both, so we can actually get to the Asian markets and we can get to the Los Angeles and US markets.”
Mr Connor said that transmission costs to Tasmania still remained high relative to elsewhere.
“Bass Strait is barely competitive with 3 cables from 2 providers,” he said.
Shadow ICT Minister Madeleine Ogilvie said more optic fibre capacity should be considered in a feasibility study into a second Basslink.
She said Labor would support an open tender process into the proposed SubPartners cable.
Information Technology and Innovation Minister Michael Ferguson did not answer questions about additional fibre optic capacity, but said a report into the SubPartners cable was currently being considered, though they were yet to receive a proposal.