News & insights

On 27 August 2026, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) published its final replacement module determination for the second regulatory cycle (1 July 2026 to 30 June 2029) under NBN Co’s special access undertaking. Alongside the determination and its reasons, the ACCC published the supporting advice it received from CEPA, one of its expert advisers on the project. CEPA provided advice and estimates of the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) used to set NBN Co's allowed revenue. Over the course of the determination process, CEPA provided the ACCC with: estimates and supporting analysis of the individual WACC building blocks, including the risk-free rate, beta, cost of debt and market risk premium; a response to stakeholder submissions on the ACCC's draft WACC methodology; and an updated WACC estimate and calculator ahead of the final determination. This advice fed into the ACCC's determination that NBN Co's real annual building block model revenue requirement for the second regulatory cycle should be set at $16.75 billion (2014 AUD), reflecting the ACCC's positions on both expenditure and the WACC. The ACCC also determined that NBN Co is not expected to reach cost recovery on its regulated services during the second regulatory cycle, meaning NBN Co's regulated wholesale prices will remain capped by the Consumer Price Index. The ACCC's determination of prudent and efficient expenditure, including the cost of capital work CEPA supported, is intended to ensure that once NBN Co does reach cost recovery, prices are set only to recover efficient costs.

The final determination, reasons and full set of supporting advice — including CEPA's WACC reports — are available from the ACCC's website.