Stuart Corner
Monday, 12 May 2008 12:48
Business IT -
Networking
Page 1 of 2
The Tasmanian Government's hopes of breaking Telstra's monopoly of fibre access to the island have foundered with the owners of alternative capacity on the Basslink power cable playing hardball.
The Tasmanian Government has for years been boasting about its "co-operative agreement" with the owners of the power cable laid under Bass Strait that would give it another fibre link to the mainland in addition to Telstra's monopoly which, it is claimed, results in backhaul prices ISPs have to pay being ten times rates on other routes.
However that agreement now appears to have been worthless. The cable was sold last year by its builders to Singapore infrastructure company, CitySpring Trust and the new owners appear to want to replace monopoly pricing with duopoly pricing.
Broadband users in Tasmania, frustrated with the delays, have formed a lobby group www.digitaltasmania.org with an initial focus on getting Basslink fibre in use. It claims that the government is contracted to pay the owners $30 million over the next 15 years regardless of whether the fibre carries any traffic for the Government.
Tasmania's Mercury newspaper reported on 10 May that "five months of talks over the idle Basslink fibre-optic cable have reached an impasse with the State Government running out of patience with owners CitySpring. The Singaporean company's most recent proposal for commercialising the telecommunications link has been rejected as 'totally unacceptable' by government negotiators. The Government is furious the company has walked away from a partnership approach to commercialise the undersea link along with the state's overland fibre-optic network."
It quoted state treasurer Michael Aird saying: "The Government will only accept genuine price competition for broadband services. We remain open to negotiating an acceptable commercial outcome with CitySpring, including renegotiation of the Telecoms Agreement." CONTINUED
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