Optus signs NBN Co wholesale agreement

Optus today announced it had signed the NBN Co wholesale broadband agreement (WBA) — a 12-month contract ISPs enter into to sell commercial services over the National Broadband Network (NBN) — following months of negotiations.

“Optus today confirmed it has signed the executable NBN Co Wholesale Broadband Agreement,” a statement from the nation's number two telco said.

The latest version of the WBA, which was amended last week, still contained a number of unresolved concerns that the telco had since November 2011, but ongoing discussions with NBN Co were the deciding factor for Optus to sign.

“Optus will continue to engage in constructive dialogue with NBN Co to ensure that outstanding concerns such as regulatory oversight and service assurance levels are adequately addressed in any future long-term version of the WBA,” the statement said.

NBN Co has taken steps to address concerns with the WBA an Optus spokesperson told Computerworld Australia, with Optus hoping some of the issues will be addressed in a revised long-term version of the agreement.

“It’s a 12-month contract and the industry, not just Optus, does have some further concerns,” she said.

“Obviously we’ll continue to work with NBN Co to make sure that when the future long-term version is released, that those [issues] will be addressed.”

Earlier this week, Optus and NBN Co were still in a stalemate over the signing of the WBA amid ongoing discussions, despite the trial agreement having expired on 12 January.

Primus Australia and iiNet signed the WBA last week.

Five versions of the WBA had been released before the current standard form of access agreement; however, a sixth one will be made available following alterations.

Follow Diana Nguyen on Twitter: @diananguyen9

Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAU

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