Australia's competition watchdog, famous for sniffing out anti-competitive behaviour in the local market, has been accused of digging up "old news" about Optus@Home.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) took action against the Internet Service Provider in July after it advertised unlimited download services that were effectively restricted by an Acceptable User Policy (AUP), resulting in about 50 subscriber accounts being terminated for excessive downloading.
"This is very old news from my perspective," CEO of Excite@Home, Chris Chapman, told ZDNet.
"All I can think is that it's taken a long while to go through [the ACCC's] internal processes," Chapman said.
However, the ACCC claims that although it's been in negotiations with Optus@Home for a while, dealings with the ISP were only finalised yesterday.
"A new AUP has been established," ACCC GM of telecommunications, Michael Cosgrave, said, which is not "misleading and deceptive". "It doesn't breach the Trade Practices Act," Cosgrave added.
However, Cosgrave admitted that the reason of drawing attention back to the Optus@Home situation was to "ensure people are reviewing their own policies to make sure there aren't similar problems".
Whilst Chapman said Optus@Home is not unique in having an APU, a very necessary component of the Internet world, the ACCC said its concern wasn't with the concept of such a policy but with those that are "poorly worded".
"Customers need to be aware of all the terms and conditions that relate to it," Cosgrave said.
Optus@Home had to compensate subscribers that had accounts terminated of installation fees, either AU$199 or AU$399, as well as monthly subscriptions of about AU$65.
"It wasn't dramatic dollars," Chapman said and Optus@Home's new AUP, which took effect as of last week, has been "exceptionally well received," he added.
"We're hell bent on having fair use for our subscribers," Chapman said.
