Basslink botch-up stymies Tasmanian broadband

Stuart Corner
Monday, 12 May 2008 11:48

Business IT - Networking

In a press statement responding to comments from Greens Deputy leader Nick McKim, Aird said: "simply lighting the Basslink fibre...will not improve the competitive market in Tasmania, given the commercial intent of the current owners of Basslink. The Government understands the frustration of all stakeholders. We too are frustrated but negotiations have been complicated and the Government will not accept a second-rate broadband solution for Tasmania."

In a submission to Panel of Experts assisting in the development of the NBN Request for Proposals documentation earlier this year the Tasmanian Government omitted any mention of Basslink fibre and called instead of "priority construction of the new Broadband Connect funded optic-fibre cable across Bass Strait." This was part of the deal under which Opel was awarded its now withdrawn $1 billion contract.

However neither Basslink nor a single new cable will break the Telstra monopoly: Telstra has two cables so without two new cables there could be no competitive redundant links. Opel had proposed using the Basslink cable to create this redundancy but received a stern "hands off our cable" from Aird.

Now, thanks, some say, to the government's ineptitude in not locking in access to the Basslink fibre and to the shenanigans of federal communication policy, Telstra's stranglehold on fibre access to the Apple Isle looks secure for quite some time.