The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission recently issued a request for tender for a three-year extension and expansion of the controversial Measuring Broadband Australia program.

The program was awarded to the testing supplier, SamKnows in 2017. However, it has been dogged by controversies. It was originally conceptualised to include 2,000 participants, which should eventually increase to 4,000. However, the sample size failed to surpass 1,300. 

Even so, the commission still proceeded to publish quarterly rankings of RSP performance data based on this data. Subsequently, the results published have been used by winners in national marketing campaigns despite the unelaborated statistical basis of the rankings.

The new contract is set to cover an additional three-year period running through 30 June 2025. The program has available funding of $1.8M that is provided by the industry. According to the ACCC, it would “welcome proposals that reuse the existing whiteboxes, however, we understand this may not be practicable for reasons such as, but not limited to, licensing and technology compatibility.”

The regulator owns the whiteboxes, but the software behind these is subject to a licence granted to volunteer households by SamKnows. Hence, prospective testing providers would have to get in touch directly with SamKnows, particularly if they want to know more about the devices.

Nevertheless, the ACCC said that it had already taken measures to ensure the tender process is “open and genuinely competitive,” with the regulator engaging “external commercial, legal and probity advisers”. In addition to this, the regulator did not involve SamKnows in any preparatory work. However, the commission acknowledged that it intends to evaluate the program’s total cost over the contract period.

The new contract encompasses the previously foreshadowed expansion of the program to include non-NBN fixed wireless services and fixed-line services. It also consists of the move to broaden the RSPs represented among the testing cohort. The commission noted that several stakeholders had supported the program’s expansion “into fixed wireless and satellite to shed light on broadband services used by regional, rural and remote Australians.”

According to the ACCC, it was “aware that there are additional challenges with including fixed wireless, both current generation, and 5G, services in the MBA program but do not view them as insurmountable.” It also highlighted its preference for a fixed monthly fee. This fee should cover volunteer recruitment and management, testing and testing devices, reporting, and other services. 

Communications Alliance responded by saying that: “Industry views that the program has been extremely opaque, which is particularly problematic in light of its significant industry-funded cost, and we recommend some changes to increase transparency. It has been difficult to understand throughout the program to date, exactly how many participants have been recruited to the program – other than that the numbers are much lower than originally forecast – this, inevitably, raises questions about the sample size and its impact on the results.”