ITWire

He said: "This is where I actually see a structurally separated carrier [ie NBN Co] changing the market. For example, Defence'¦does have its own unique requirements and would be better served by having its own carriage service provider that buys and manages the service for the Department of Defence. The same applies to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade'¦The whole idea of the NBN is to improve efficiencies and cost savings for government; therefore, why not let them create a carriage service provider that specifically fulfils their needs."

Carriers filled with horror
Green agreed with the committee chairman, senator Ian Macdonald's, conclusion that such a move "would fill the current retail carriers with horror to think that all the various government departments and agencies around Australia could possibly no longer be their customers," but he contended that this would be a good thing. "Why shouldn't the government have the benefits of efficiencies they can gain from the NBN?"

When Macdonald pointed out that this would likely mean that the telcos, deprived of lucrative government contracts, would be forced to jack up prices to other customers, Green suggested it would produce a shakeout of the industry.

"What you will find is that they will become dinosaurs and go out of business and your more nimble mid-tier or second tiers will, in fact, take over the market'¦If they do not have their efficiencies and that kind of thing right then, I am sorry, they need to go out of business. It is a completely new market environment when the structurally separated carrier like NBN comes into effect."

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