Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
The Federal Government has moved to reassure the industry that there will be no behind closed-door deals on FTTN, and has called on both G9 and Telstra to make their proposals public.
Gary Humphries, secretary of the Government's Communications Policy Committee, delivering the keynote address at ATUG's regional communications conference in Canberra on behalf of the minister for communications, senator Helen Coonan, acknowledged the widespread fear that the Government would be forced to do a closed door deal with Telstra to head off the ALP's FTTN proposal.
However, he said: "I can assure this conference that this will not be the case. Nothing could be further from the truth." And he outlined what he said would be the Government's "cautious and responsible approach" to the issue.
"The government supports details of the competing proposals being put into the public arena so that everyone has the opportunity to consider the merits of each proposal, including the proposed prices," Humphries said.
"The future of Australia's competitive telecommunications market and the need to maintain choice and affordability for consumers behoves that kind of approach...And ensures that the public can see that this is not about scoring political points but about working out what is the best plan for Australia's future."
In what could be seen as a swipe at Telstra's reported FTTN wholesale price of $85 per month, Humphries said: "If broadband in Australia becomes unaffordable it will not matter how widely available it is. The health future of Australia's competitive communications market and the need to maintain choice and affordability is the key element of any broadband challenge."
Humphries added: "This is not a debate about whether Aus can or should have a new broadband network. We will. The question is how we do that and what commercial incentives are there to get the network up and running...In a fast-paced environment we need to make sure Australians can connect to the Internet wherever they are. We need to create a climate that encourages and rewards investment in telecommunications infrastructure. Our objective is to achieve the right balance between regulatory certainty and fair return on investment while maintaining a health competitive market.
David Bass
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