Optus chief calls on Government to force Telstra to table

Stan Beer
Thursday, 24 August 2006 14:04

IT Industry - Strategy

Optus chief executive Paul O'Sullivan has once again lambasted Telstra for holding back the development of broadband in Australia saying that the carrier is trying to re-establish its monopoly. He called on the Federal Government to force Telstra to negotiate with other carriers to cooperatively build a world class broadband network.

Speaking at a luncheon in Melbourne hosted by the Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce, Mr O'Sullivan labelled Telstra "the Circus du Sol", playing on the names of the travelling Canadian circus act Cirque du Soleil and Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo.

According to Mr O'Sullivan, Telstra is to blame for Australia being ranked alongside for Eastern Bloc European countries in the OECD in the development of a broadband infrastructure. He said that management group McKinsey has said Telstra will delay the development of a broadband Fibre to the Node Network (FTNN) until it is forced to compete.

"Telstra wants to be seen as the national champion of FTTN but they want a holiday from the access rules," said Mr O'Sullivan. "Trujillo claims that Telstra wants to do the things that are important for Australia. He says give us special treatment and we'll give you the network you want. However, the national champions approach has been discredited. Competition not deregulation is what Australia needs in this industry."

Mr O'Sullivan said that Telstra's proposed FTTN is designed to re-establish its monopoly in the local loop, which in turn will cut off existing competing networks and prevent the development of new ones. "Under Telstra's plan, service providers will be reduced to reselling Telstra services," he said.

Mr O'Sullivan completed his address by calling on the Federal Government to push Telstra to the negotiating table with the group of nine competing carriers, collectively known as G9, in order to move forward on cooperatively building an FTTN network. "Optus is investing $150 million in ADSL2 which can deliver up to 20 Mbps," he said. "However, there is general agreement that even ADSL2 is just the beginning. We need to go further."

{mos_sb_discuss:3}