News Service from House Harris

Telstra says it was pushed from broadband tender

SYDNEY, March 3 AAP - Telstra's tender for the national broadband network (NBN) was rejected while the company awaited assurances about making a more detailed bid, a Senate committee has been told.

Australia's biggest telco was expelled from the project's tender process after lodging a bid which fell short of the government's stated objectives.

As a result, there is mounting speculation the entire tender process is on the verge of collapse.

The company that eventually wins the rights to the project will need to access Telstra's existing infrastructure, a proposition the telco giant is said to oppose.

Telstra spokesman David Quilty told a Senate committee hearing into the network that the telco was pushed out of the tender process.

He said Telstra wanted to submit a 5,000-page bid, but handed in a 12-page report "on good faith" while seeking assurances the bid would not be discussed with rivals.

"We sought clarity that the very detailed information that we would be providing ... could not be used in terms of government deliberations with other bidders," Mr Quilty told the Senate committee in Sydney on Tuesday.

"We were not able to get the sort of clarity we were asking."

The bid criticised for lacking enough detail was rejected by NBN expert panel chair and Department of Communications secretary Patricia Scott.

Rival bidder Optus told the committee the network tender would not suffer due to Telstra's exclusion.

Liberal Senator Nick Minchin questioned whether the process was truly competitive if the "big elephant in the room", Telstra, was not included.

But Optus spokesman Maha Krishnapillai said the playing field had been open and Telstra blew its chance.

"Telstra had its chance - it chose not to participate," he told the committee.

"It chose to put its interests above the national interests."

He said Telstra had spent the past 15 years doing everything in its power to "stall, frustrate and delay" the network, adding that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for "fundamental regulatory reform".

Telstra has submitted a detailed report into the future of Australian broadband to the committee, prompting Nationals Senator Fiona Nash to say it may still be in the running for the tender if the original bid had been as comprehensive.

But Mr Quilty said it was still important for Telstra to contribute to the discussions as the committee's decisions would shape the future for all Australian telcos.

One vital aspect of the decision should be that future network competition must not be outlawed, he said.

"Nowhere in the world that I'm aware of has the government ever outlawed competitive infrastructure," he said.

"To close all that off by hedging all your bets on one network that would outlaw all the competition seems to me a very silly thing to do."

Telstra should be allowed to create its own network with different or better technology at a later date, he said.