An Albanese government move to legislate against privatising the National Broadband Network (NBN) has been welcomed by experts, who say selling it off would be bad for consumers.

The government is introducing a bill into Parliament that would prevent the privatisation of taxpayer-owned NBN Co. by any future federal Coalition or Labor cabinet.

University of Queensland professor John Quiggin said Australia’s history with privatisation – including the sell off of Telstra in the late 1990s – shows why such a move would be harmful.

“Telstra had the chance to build an NBN and couldn’t come to an agreement with the Howard government,” he said.

“They’re the last people we should trust with it.”

Less-than-optimal timing

Telecommunications consultant Paul Budde said while he doesn’t oppose privatisation in principle provided there are strict regulations to protect consumers, it would be a bad idea now.

He said taxpayers wouldn’t even get a good return for NBN Co. in an environment in which telcos are already facing significant financial pressures and questions about their capacity to invest.

“It will be nearly impossible for the government to recoup all of its money under these market circumstances,” Budde said.

‘Very bad idea’

RMIT University Professor Mark Gregory said privatising the NBN would be a “very bad idea”.

He explained that because NBN is the only major provider of fibre broadband, it wouldn’t face competition as a private company, which would ultimately leave consumers even worse off.

“Where you have a single infrastructure provider, you don’t have competition in that particular area,” Gregory said.

But Gregory views the government’s bill as “throwing a small stone into a large pond” in the context of Australia’s broader telco landscape, which is already undergoing private capture.

He explained that government-owned satellite provider Sky Muster is being chased out of the market by entrants like US-owned Starlink, which could soon be one of Australia’s biggest telcos.

As TND has covered previously, the NBN’s Sky Muster service is facing structural headwinds as the prevalence of the low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite network run by Starlink draws in consumers.

Satellite technology

NBN has said previously it is considering investing in the technology, but Gregory said the federal government is now about five years behind the market standard for rural and remote connectivity.

“Sky Muster is going to be turned off because their satellites only last until about 2032,” he said.

“The government needs to invest in a LEO satellite constellation – the UK, Canada and other comparable countries to us have all done that already.”

Without such investments, Gregory fears the public provider of internet for many Australians in rural and remote areas will be overtaken by a foreign-owned private company.

“They don’t even pay tax. If you do a transaction with Starlink you actually process the card [transaction] in Singapore,” he said.

“The way they’re [the government] going right now, it will be a very bad outcome for this nation … we are a huge country. If there’s anyone in the world that should have LEO satellites, it’s us.”

Starlink consumers have previously told TND that they’re wary of relying on a foreign-owned private internet provider for connectivity, but see little choice due to the superior service offered.