Turnbull's NBN Co price warnings only half the story

Shadow Communications minister Malcolm Turnbull has issued a lengthy press release claiming that NBN Co is seeking the freedom to hike its wholesale prices at rates way above inflation, however this is a gross over-simplification of a very complex issue.

He draws this conclusion from NBN Co's discussion paper, released last month, on the special access undertaking it is preparing to lodge with the ACCC. In particular Turnbull focuses on "NBN Co's plan to be able to charge annual price hikes of up to five percent above inflation on most of its products." This he says, "contrasts with large real declines in the cost of telecommunications in Australia and other OECD economies in the past two decades."