"What is set out in that bill is that if the NBN wants to give say a volume discount, it has to go and get approval from the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission)," he said following the .

"The NBN can't just go off and give a volume discount to anybody or make new pricing arrangements."

Also speaking at the hearing, Internet Society of Australia director, Paul Brookes, refuted the argument for volume discounts arguing that automation of NBN Co's carriage allocation systems should mean that it was no more or less work in supplying a major player, such as Telstra or Optus, than in a minor service provider.

"If NBN Co is doing its job properly and has set up automated provisioning, then there should not be any rationale for a reduction in cost to NBN Co's service whether that is presented to them as one block of 10,000 or 10,000 individual orders," he said.

"The cost should be identical as they are automating the whole thing. So we find it difficult to see how there could be an argument for volume discounts."