NBNCo is said to offer CVC rebates of almost $4M for August. NBN also proposed extending the Wholesale Broadband Agreement terms for ten months allowing RSPs to focus on Special Access Undertaking negotiations.

NBNCo started offering a partial rebate on overage charges imposed on exceeding CVC usage orders since July. However, the August rebate offer will only amount to $3.7M, which is a bit lower than July, which came in at $5.3M. The August rebates will be paid next week.

According to CommsDay, the impact of the assumed 25% CAGR growth in data usage without the lockdown may have been the reason why the August rebate fell largely. Data usage growth has flattened in August. Average data use during peak hours has just grown 2.5 percent as compared to 7 percent growth in July.

According to NBNCo, the rebate “will be allocated according to each retailer’s share of industry total national overage, which represents the additional capacity purchased over and above the total included capacity for wholesale bundle discount speed tiers.”

“NBN Co will be offering further COVID-19 relief credit payments to internet retailers for September 2021, if the usage threshold is met. Given the extension of lockdowns in some states, NBN Co will also be extending the payments for October 2021, if the usage threshold is met,” said NBNCo EGM commercial Ken Walliss.

Proposal to Extend WBA4

NBNCo also proposed an extension of Wholesale Broadband Agreement 4 for another ten months, spanning to the end of September 2023. Initially, the WBA4 was set to expire on the first of December 2022 after it commenced on December 2020. The two-year span was based on the expected completion of the consultation process and ratification for version 5.

According to NBNCo, the proposed WBA4 extension is intended to “enable all parties to prioritise discussion and negotiations around the SAU variation consultation process. By providing clear and distinct negotiation windows for the SAU variation and WBA5, respectively, we hope to give all parties the time to focus on generating the best possible outcomes on each consultation and agreement.”

NBNCo further added that the extension “does not stop ongoing improvements being made to WBA4 during its term and any price changes resulting from the SAU variation process would be flowed through to the WBA current at that time.”

NBNCo has also offered to extend the current TC-4 Business Bundles Campaign until 31 December 2024.