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Telecommunications Howard kept Telstra regulation weak: Fels
Telecommunications Howard kept Telstra regulation weak: Fels | Howard kept Telstra regulation weak: Fels |
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| by James Riley | |
| Sunday, 04 October 2009 | |
  
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But while welcoming Communications Minister Stephen Conroy's structural reforms as “something that had to happen,” Fels says the monopoly position of the National Broadband Network creates its own regulatory headaches. "The access law was very weak, and it was introduced at a time when Government wanted to privatise Telstra, so it made it weak and it kept it weak," Fels told the ABC. "So the true objectives of policy weren’t achieved." Fels says the weakness of regulatory measures taken during the Telstra sale period were an open secret, acknowledged by Government, and more recently in his book on the history of broadband development in Australia by Paul Fletcher. Fletcher is the former adviser to Communications Minister Richard Alston and Optus executive who was recently preselected by the Liberals for the safe seat of Bradfield on Sydney’s upper north shore. Fels says the monopoly nature of the NBN will present challenges. "The real issue I see now is that not only should we strengthen regulation, but we have to consider the relationship of these moves to the establishment of the National Broadband Network, and there are a lot of tricky questions." "Obviously I would be quite concerned if all the main players now – like Telstra and Optus and everyone – got into the NBN and it had monopoly powers. That is a really dilemma." Senator Conroy has consistently maintained that as a legislated, wholesale-only open access network, the NBN would promote competition, not stifle it. The Government has argued since its years in opposition that infrastructure competition has failed. "(The NBN) will drive genuine competitive pressure in the telecommunications sector, to the benefit of consumers and businesses that use these services," Senator Conroy told the Pearcey Foundation dinner in Melbourne last week. "It will form the basis for a generation of innovators and for businesses to drive efficiency and productivity growth." Senator Conroy, meanwhile, will address the International Telecommunications Union's Telecom World 2009 conference in Geneva tomorrow in a session on ICT for economic growth. |
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