Telstra to act as NBN reseller

Beverley Head
Tuesday, 21 September 2010 14:49

IT Industry - Strategy

In a clear demonstration of the adage 'if you can't beat 'em join 'em', Telstra has signed up to trial  the National Broadband Network in Tasmania starting next month.

The future of the telecommunications giant is inextricably linked with the NBN. In June it signed a heads of agreement with NBN Co worth around $11 billion. As part of that agreement Telstra will eventually migrate its voice and broadband traffic off its copper and cable networks and onto the NBN.

Right now though it wants to make sure its equipment works with the NBN, and that it really will have a product to sell.

The Tasmanian NBN which was first switched on by the Prime Minister just days before the election, is currently available in Midway Point, Smithton and Scottsdale. Retail service providers (RSPs) already signed up to provide services are iiNet, Primus, Internode and Exetel.

Telstra is now planning to run a free trial with 100 of its customers before committing itself to a full commercial product launch presumably in early 2011.

In a statement released today NBN Tasmania executive chairman, Doug Campbell, himself a former Telstra executive, said that: 'The growth in competition on the network should also prove beneficial for end-users in terms of innovation, service differentiation and price.'

The four RSPs currently offering services are all in the same ballpark, price wise, although the way they have chosen to bundle the service to Tasmanians differs markedly.