Telstra pulls out of broadband conference alleging panel bias

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 04 November 2008 05:55

IT Industry - Strategy

Telstra has made an eleventh hour withdrawal from a broadband conference being held in Sydney on 5 and 6 November claiming that a discussion panel was overly weighted with its competitors, and that non-disclosure terms of the NBN RFP would have precluded it from making any meaningful contribution in a 'showcase' session.

Telstra was to have participated along with rival bidder Terria in a NBN bidders' showcase where representatives of it and Terria would have each given "10 minute positioning statements before taking questions."

This was to have been followed by a panel session "can open access regulation work without structural separation?" to be moderated by conference chairman Paul Budde - well known for being an outspoken critic of Telstra - and featuring the executive director of the Competitive Carriers Coalition, David Forman; the chief regulatory officer of iiNet, Steve Dalby; Telstra's group managing director wholesale, Kate McKenzie and Optus' director of government and corporate affairs, Maha Krishnapillai.

The CCC issued a press release claiming that "Telstra has tried unsuccessfully to force the organisers...to remove the CCC and independent analyst Paul Budde from the published program, and to replace them with Telstra nominees."

However, according to John Pozoglou, general manager of the organiser, Terrapinn this was not correct. Telstra, he said had raised no objection to Foreman speaking in his own, separately scheduled presentation, or to Budde chairing the conference.

"I can confirm [Telstra has] pulled out because we did not meet their demands in regards to people on the programme, because they felt that we a biased view and the conference was being set up as an anti-Telstra event," he said.

"They did not feel that Paul [Budde] was the best person to moderate that panel session given that he has been fairly vociferous in his calls for Telstra to separate. They wanted to put a couple of Telstra supporters on that panel to make it even. They put forward Alcatel-Lucent [Telstra's chosen primary supplier should it win the NBN RFP] and David Kennedy from Ovum to moderate the panel."

Pozoglou added: "I spoke to Paul [Budde]and David [Forman] about it and they both agreed that if I thought it was in the best interests of the conference, they would step back, but I felt I was being bullied a little and decided not to do it."
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