Telstra lodges bid to build national broadband network
26 Nov 2008 12:34 PM
CANBERRA, Nov 26 AAP - Telstra has confirmed it has lodged a bid to build the national broadband network.
Australia's biggest telco had threatened to pull out of the tender process unless the government ruled out separation of its retail and network arms.
Telstra's board made the decision to bid for the project after an emergency meeting of the company's board Wednesday morning ahead of the midday bid deadline.
"The proposal outlines what would be achieved by the fully detailed bid that Telstra has prepared but could not be submitted due to a number of unresolved issues in the government's request for proposals," Telstra said in statement.
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Telstra's rivals say the telco should be required to separate its network and retail arms if it wins the rights to the project to ensure more competition and better prices for consumers.
The telco says its proposal is pro-competition and would be open access, with wholesale customers buying access services on an equivalent basis to Telstra's retail units.
However, Telstra's bid is conditional with the telco maintaining that structural separation is not an option.
"Telstra does not seek any legislative protections against competing infrastructure," the company said.
"Telstra's proposal is subject to a number of conditions for the life of the project, including no further separation of Telstra and regulatory certainty."
The federal government will contribute $4.7 billion to the construction of the network.
Telstra said it would invest up to $5 billion of its own capital into the project.
The government had planned to have finalised the tender process for the multi-billion dollar project by June this year, with construction of the network to have commenced by the end of 2008.
It now seems more likely construction of the fibre-to-the-node network will not begin until the end of 2009.
