The NBN also effectively structurally separates Telstra operations into retail and wholesale operations, as Telstar will be required to sell facilities to the NBN. In principle, you would think such structural separation would not allow vertical integration. But some observers say that might happen, to a certain extent. Nor does the existence of the NBN deal with the issue of "monopoly" or "full competition" in all respects.
There are, for example 120 points of network interconnection. But that also means NBN can refuse to connect to any retail provider except at those 120 points.
Similarly, NBN Co is going to offer a bundle of voice and data services as a uniform product across its fiber, wireless and satellite networks. Apparently to protect the government’s promise of uniform national pricing of NBN services, NBN will have the ability to deny supply to any service provider that doesn’t want to take the bundle.
That commitment to uniform national pricing at the wholesale level necessitates a system of cross-subsidies. Urban customer bases will subsidize higher-cost rural and regional customers.
NBN also is going to be allowed to "discriminate" in its pricing, providing volume discounts as well as possible special pricing for enterprise, educational institutions, government and local government agencies. None of that is unusual for wholesale carriers. But such issues show that structural separation might not solve all the problems "monopoly" is thought to cause. See
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Stephen-Conroy-NBN-Co-Telstra-Optus-pd20110324-F9A44?opendocument&src=rss for a discussion of some of the issues.
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