[LINK] the NBN and Telstra

[Jan Whitaker]

Once upon a time, there was a national telecommunications company.... 
blah blah blah

I reckon Sol's chooks are about to come home to roost.


Telstra 'pushed' from broadband tender

http://www.theage.com.au/national/telstra-pushed-from-broadband-tender-20090303-8nas.html?page=-1 

    * March 4, 2009 - 7:36PM

Telstra's tender for the national broadband network (NBN) was 
rejected while the company awaited assurances about making a more 
detailed bid, a Senate committee has been told.

Australia's biggest telco was expelled from the project's tender 
process after lodging a bid which fell short of the government's 
stated objectives.

As a result, there is mounting speculation the entire tender process 
is on the verge of collapse.

The company that eventually wins the rights to the project will need 
to access Telstra's existing infrastructure, a proposition the telco 
giant is said to oppose.

Telstra spokesman David Quilty told a Senate committee hearing into 
the network that the telco was pushed out of the tender process.

He said Telstra wanted to submit a 5,000-page bid, but handed in a 
12-page report "on good faith" while seeking assurances the bid would 
not be discussed with rivals.

"We sought clarity that the very detailed information that we would 
be providing ... could not be used in terms of government 
deliberations with other bidders," Mr Quilty told the Senate 
committee in Sydney on Tuesday.

"We were not able to get the sort of clarity we were asking."

The bid criticised for lacking enough detail was rejected by NBN 
expert panel chair and Department of Communications secretary Patricia Scott.

Rival bidder Optus told the committee the network tender would not 
suffer due to Telstra's exclusion.

Liberal Senator Nick Minchin questioned whether the process was truly 
competitive if the "big elephant in the room", Telstra, was not included.

But Optus spokesman Maha Krishnapillai said the playing field had 
been open and Telstra blew its chance.

"Telstra had its chance - it chose not to participate," he told the committee.

"It chose to put its interests above the national interests."

He said Telstra had spent the past 15 years doing everything in its 
power to "stall, frustrate and delay" the network, adding that it was 
a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for "fundamental regulatory reform".

Telstra has submitted a detailed report into the future of Australian 
broadband to the committee, prompting Nationals Senator Fiona Nash to 
say it may still be in the running for the tender if the original bid 
had been as comprehensive.

But Mr Quilty said it was still important for Telstra to contribute 
to the discussions as the committee's decisions would shape the 
future for all Australian telcos.

One vital aspect of the decision should be that future network 
competition must not be outlawed, he said.

"Nowhere in the world that I'm aware of has the government ever 
outlawed competitive infrastructure," he said.

"To close all that off by hedging all your bets on one network that 
would outlaw all the competition seems to me a very silly thing to do."

Telstra should be allowed to create its own network with different or 
better technology at a later date, he said.



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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