Starlink’s rise attracts extra ACCC consideration – Telco/ISP

Starlink’s rising buyer numbers in Australia has the competitors watchdog wanting common updates on its subscriber development.

The Australian Competitors and Shopper Fee (ACCC) desires to carry Starlink below the web exercise report maintaining rule (RKR) it launched in 2018.

The RKR is an information assortment mechanism that applies to telcos, which was introduced in when the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) wound up its own collection of broadband subscriber and utilization stats.

In a brief discussion paper, the ACCC famous that Starlink had grown to a buyer base of “greater than 200,000 providers” in March this 12 months, making it a “vital provider” of satellite tv for pc web.

“Starlink has a buyer base that’s rising rapidly as shoppers transition from legacy Telstra DSL providers (notably in regional and distant areas); current geostationary satellite tv for pc providers (together with NBN satellite tv for pc providers), and present USO [universal services obligation] providers delivered by copper applied sciences,” the ACCC stated.

“This development is prone to proceed as USO providers delivered over Telstra copper shift to newer applied sciences. The ACCC notes that Telstra has not too long ago began to resell Starlink providers.

“The ACCC considers that the inclusion of Starlink as a reporting entity would offer the ACCC with a extra correct image of the marketplace for retail and wholesale broadband providers in Australia and help it in administering a variety of regulatory features and duties.”

In a associated proposed change, the ACCC stated it additionally needed to trace the resale of LEOsat-based providers.

The ACCC stated it’s going to settle for submissions on the proposals till the tip of this month, and hopes to difficulty an amended RKR in September.