Conroy confirms regulatory negotiation with Telstra

James Riley
Sunday, 09 May 2010 19:12

IT Policy - Regulation

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has confirmed Government is involved in a separate set of negotiations with Telstra over regulatory policy and its legislative program, in addition to the talks Telstra is having with the Commonwealth-owned NBN Company.

Senator Conroy told ABC TV discussions were being conducted in parallel and covered the broad sweep of the national broadband network roll-out on the one hand, and the shape of the future regulatory environment on the other.

And he indicated Government would adopt the KPMG-McKinsey recommendation that it retain 100 per cent ownership of the NBN Company in its early years, until the public goals of the regulatory regime are bedded down and achieved.

While Government has previously referred to the complex commercial negotiations being conducted between the NBN Co and Telstra over the possible acquisition of assets and possibly the cooperative and phased migration of customers from the Telstra copper network to NBN fibre, it has not directly spoken of its own talk with Telstra in regulation and competition issues.

"I can confirm we have been having a range of discussions around the legislation, for instance, that we've proposed initially as well as the legislation we released in draft form also relatively recently," Senator Conroy said.

"Yes, there's been a lot of discussion between us and Telstra around regulatory matters and legislative matters," he said.

Although he remained confident that a deal could be reached between the NBN Company and Telstra that would reduce the overall cost of the wholesale-only fibre network - KPMG-McKinsey say a deal could shave $5 billion from the cost - Senator Conroy downplayed the direct impact of the implementation study on the Telstra negotiations.