Regional Broadband Scheme overview

The RBS was established to ensure there are long-term sustainable funding arrangements in place to provide essential broadband services to regional, rural and remote Australians.

Under the RBS, a carrier or declared nominated carrier (nominated carrier) is required to pay $7.45331 per month for each chargeable premises connected to their telecommunication network that has an active fixed line that provides a designated broadband service. Carriers with less than 2,000 premises in any month of the current reporting period are exempt from paying the charge for that month.

Since the commencement of the RBS on 1 January 2021, carriers and nominated carriers that own, or are responsible for, local access lines that are capable of providing NBN comparable designated broadband services are required to track the number of premises that are connected to each local access line. This applies to all premises that are connected to the local access line and are able to access designated broadband services, whether through the carrier or another carriage service provider.

Carriers who own or who are responsible for these local access lines must report on the number of premises that are serviced by their access lines for each month during the 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022 reporting period, by 31 October 2022, subject to some exceptions noted below.

Carriers and nominated carriers must report on the number of chargeable premises that are associated with their local access lines for each month of the reporting period, if the following applies:

• a carrier licence was held at any time during the reporting period
• the carrier was the owner of, or was the nominated carrier, in relation to a local access line that provided designated broadband services to premises and the line is not an exempt line within the meaning of the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999 (TCPSS Act)
• the premises are not 'exempt premises' within the meaning of the TCPSS Act. If a carrier, alone or as a member of its associated group of carriers, has less than 2,000 potentially chargeable premises for a month within the relevant period, then the premises are exempt and the carrier is not required to report for that month.

Under the Telecommunications (Regional Broadband Scheme) Charge Act 2020 (the RBS Charge Act) there are 2 parts to the charge:

• the base component
• the administrative component.

The base component will be subject to indexation in each financial year.

For the current reporting period (2020–21), the following charges apply:

Base component

The base component of the second-year amount is $7.45159 per month per premises. This amount has been calculated using the formula set out in section 12(3) of the RBS Charge Act, where the ‘previous base component’ amount of $7.09 has been multiplied by the indexation factor of 1.051.

Administrative component

As set out in section 16(2) of the RBS Act, the administrative component is $0.00172 per month per premises. The administrative components that will apply per month for the third, fourth and fifth eligible financial years are set out in section 16 of the RBS Charge Act. From the sixth eligible financial year onward, the administrative component will be subject to indexation.

A carriers’ annual charge is calculated out by multiplying its chargeable premises per month by the base component amount and the administrative component amount. These monthly base amounts and monthly administrative amounts are added up to determine the annual base amount and annual administrative amount. The carrier’s annual charge is the sum of the annual base amount and annual administrative amount.

The current reporting period is from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022.

Eligible carriers are required to submit a report to us by 31 October 2022.

Details about what is required in the report are set out in section 100 of the TCPSS Act. Carriers are encouraged to obtain their own legal and technical advice as necessary to understand their reporting obligations under the RBS and TCPSS Acts.

Between 1 November and 31 December 2022,  we will assess reports to calculate the number of chargeable premises and the annual chargeable premises amounts to be charged to carriers.

Telecommunications (Regional Broadband Scheme) Charge Act 2020

Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999

Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) (Assessment Deadline and Standard Due Date) Determination 2021

ACCC Regional Broadband Scheme reporting

Explanatory Memorandum relating to the introduction of the RBS legislation

Read more about the scheme and how it works.

For further information please contact us at rbs@acma.gov.au.