Telstra proffers an olive branch

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 25 February 2009 01:20

IT Industry - Market

Telstra's group managing director, public policy & communications, David Quilty appears to have signalled a shift in strategy from the company, indicating that it is prepared to mollify its previously aggressive stance against the government, the ACCC and regulatory reform.

In stark contract to the bluster and bombast of his predecessor, Phil Burgess Quilty delivered a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra yesterday that, while still critical of Government and the ACCC stopped well short of Burgess' denigration of the organisation, and personal attacks on its chairman. Quilty also hinted at the possibility of dialogue on key issues.

Quilty called for a new way of thinking to drive "desperately need[ed] investment in the advanced telecoms infrastructure that will increase productive capacity and drive economic growth," and claimed that "increasingly, the world’s telecoms companies and governments are entering into pragmatic, 'win-win' partnerships to bring-on much needed investment in next generation networks...driven by a shared realisation that commercial and government levers need to work in unison to unleash the capital required to fund these networks."

He concluded by saying "...difficult times do require clear thinking, a new mindset, and a real commitment to action...If we’re to grasp the productivity-enhancing opportunities from an ICT-enabled economy, we must find new ways to stimulate commercial investment in essential infrastructure...We need to look at building 'win-win' partnerships, with all the key commercial and government levers working in unison, to drive this investment."

Nor did he dwell on Telstra's exclusion from the National Broadband Network RFP saying " We do not agree with this exclusion, but we copped it on the chin and have moved on from the RFP process. Our focus is on using our highly capable copper, cable and wireless networks to deliver world-leading services to customers – including by upgrading these networks where it makes commercial sense to do so.

Quilty identified five areas where he said "have the potential to unleash a new era of investment and innovation in telecoms." The "most vexing and the cause of most disputation" was the telecoms competition regime in the Trade Practices Act . He revealed that Telstra would this week lodge its submission to the Productivity Commission’s annual review of regulatory burdens on Business. "This submission will detail Telstra’s proposals for overhauling the telecoms regime, including the design principles for establishing a more pro-investment system of third-party access," Quilty said.

The third area was spectrum reform and Quilty revealed that the mobile industry would soon release a report which "conservatively estimates that reallocating the optimal amount of analogue broadcasting spectrum for next generation wireless broadband would generate up to $10 billion in additional economic activity in Australia."

Fourthly, Quilty called for reform of the universal service regime and lastly for a reduction in red tape saying "Telstra has written to the Ministers for Broadband and for De-Regulation with a long list of examples of outdated, duplicative or unnecessary red-tape that could be removed with no impact upon customers or the industry.