Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 14 October 2008 18:54
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
Telstra has mounted what might be its strongest attack to date on any attempt by the government to deny it the right to build the national broadband network on its terms, claiming it will refuse any other builder access to the copper pairs connecting customers and that it will compete vigorously with a non-Telstra NBN using alternative infrastructure.
The attack was delivered in a speech by chief financial officer, John Stanhope, to a telecommunications, media and technology conference organised by stockbroker BBY.
Stanhope started off by claiming that "There is no infrastructure more important to all Australians than the National Broadband Network." Really? What about water, electricity, roads? I know which I'd give up first.
But to emphasise the point he claimed that "A Telstra study shows that Australia loses at least $200 million every month that the network is delayed," before invoking the rather awkward metaphor of a delayed political football "This is not some political football to be delayed indefinitely by competitors who want to protect ULL services they have been provided at below-cost prices."
Presumably he is referring here to ISPs who have lobbied for the NBN to be rolled out first in areas that do not currently enjoy ADSL2+ broadband speeds so they have some chance of recouping their investment in DSLAMs before these get stranded by the NBN. None of the protagonists and certainly not Terria, want to delay the NBN.
He then reminded his audience that "his investment involves going down virtually every street in Australia to upgrade the copper phone network Telstra has built and maintained for more than a century. It will involve thousands of skilled technicians with highly specialised equipment. It will involve intimate knowledge of Australia's communications network, including some of our most sensitive and sophisticated national security infrastructure."
Is he trying to claim that Telstra has some knowledge-advantage here? Wasn't the lengthy and convoluted process, including legislation, that the Rudd Government went through to give other bidders access to information on Telstra's network - and which delayed the closing date for the NBN RFP by several months, - supposed to level the playing field in this regard?
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