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Telecommunications Gov't faces law suits over any FTTN deal with Telstra
Telecommunications Gov't faces law suits over any FTTN deal with Telstra | Gov't faces law suits over any FTTN deal with Telstra |
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| by Stuart Corner | |
| Friday, 04 May 2007 | |
  
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Simon Hackett, managing director of broadband ISP Internode, said: "If Telstra receives the green light to establish an FTTN monopoly, then prices for high-speed broadband will increase dramatically, which will throttle the adoption of broadband in this country...Any form of 'deal' that allows Telstra to wind back infrastructure-based competition in broadband will invite legal action by the industry and a likely class action on behalf of the majority of retail customers who use ISPs other than Telstra BigPond." Internode is a member of the G9 group that has proposed to the government an alternative FTTN rollout with an indicative wholesale price of around $20 per month. However, it is dependent on gaining access to all Telstra copper at each node and on Telstra then becoming a reseller of services like every other carrier. Not surprisingly Telstra has rejected this proposal outright. Internode is a $100 million revenue broadband company that has 120,000 customers throughout Australia that has invested heavily in DSLAMs enabling it to deliver ADSL2+ services at speeds of up to 20Mbps for those living close to an exchange. According to Hackett, “Telstra's FTTN model will strand more than $500m of existing investments made by its competitors to deliver ADSL2+ broadband to their customers. That means the current generation of affordable high-speed broadband will be gutted if Telstra gets the go-ahead." Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo made clear early in his tenure that one of his key objectives is to boost Telstra's gross profit margins to 46-48 percent by 2010, and according to Hackett its FTTN proposal is one of the main avenues by which it aims to achieve this goal.{moscomment} |
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