Optus chief urges Senate to pass telco reforms

James Riley
Sunday, 15 November 2009 11:08

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

Optus chief Paul O'Sullivan has urged Federal Parliament to pass without delay telecommunications reform legislation scheduled to be debated in the Senate over the next two weeks, saying the changes will unleash a new wave of competition in the sector.

The reforms would also provide a framework to enable the National Broadband Network to be built more quickly.

"What we can all see is first of all it's critical we pass the reform legislation in this sitting of Parliament which will ensure that it's very clear to Telstra and its board that it cannot hang on to the monopoly it's had in services to the home," O'Sullivan told the ABC's Inside Business program.

"That will unleash Telstra's energy and effort (in) working out how to move forward. I'm quite confident that in that world they will realise … that participating in the NBN and helping Australia build a future and realise the benefits of the NBN is the best way to go."

"We need to get on with it. We need to stop the delay. We need to build this network now because of what it can offer Australia," O'Sullivan said.

While Optus was strong in the corporate markets and in strong in mobile markets, it had been unable to compete under the present regulatory regime in the $8 billion residential market.

O'Sullivan said the reform proposals currently before the Senate would open a new wave of competition in the home markets to the benefit of consumers and providers.

"Throwing open that $8 billion market to Optus and letting us compete would be a huge step forward, not only for us but I'd argue for all Australians, because we can drive the benefits through competition in that market that we've done in the others," he said.

He said Optus was one of the few companies that had already publicly committed to investing in the proposed National Broadband Network and says its own economic modelling had shown in was viable and a good investment.

"We've also been quite public about the economics of this," O'Sullivan said.

"We've done a detailed costing and demand modelling exercise on the NBN and we've been one of the few parties to make this public and show how this can be a good investment."

"The NBN is a terrific opportunity, not only for us but for all the players and telecoms to finally get a chance to compete on a level playing field in the residential home market."

O'Sullivan said the company sees "a lot of synergies between our mobile business and the home business" by being able to offer services that converge what customers do at home – with things like photo storage or music – and what they do with their mobile phones.