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Telstra rivals cheer Rudd plan |
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Telstra rivals cheer Rudd plan
Nicola Berkovic
| April 08, 2009
THE galaxy of telecommunications and internet
companies that live in Telstra's shadow -- even those that spent
millions of dollars bidding to get involved in the national broadband
network -- yesterday welcomed the Government's move to ditch the tender
and build the network itself.
Optus, Primus, Internode and
other smaller providers responded enthusiastically yesterday, with only
ACT utility TransACT saying it was disappointed with the outcome after
spending millions preparing a bid.
TransACT
chief executive Ivan Slavich ruled out legal action, acknowledging that
the Government was within its rights to abandon the process in favour
of its own $43 billion plan to get fast broadband into every Australian
home and business.
"It's an ethical question," Mr Slavich
said. "We're not a huge company and we spent a lot of money putting
together a proposal in good faith."
He said the company was still keen to engage with the Government on the project.
The
Rudd Government yesterday shocked the market with plans to roll fibre
cable into 90 per cent of the nation's homes and business, after
initially requesting bids for a less extensive "fibre-to-the-node"
network.
The network, to be partly private-funded, will
deliver speeds of up to 100 megabits per second to most Australians,
with those in rural and remote areas promised 12Mbps using alternative
technologies.
Canadian company Axia NetMedia, which had been
one of the favourites to win the bidding, said yesterday's outcome was
better for Australia than the FTTN proposal. "They're on the right
path," said chief executive Art Price. "We've never supported the
fibre-to-the-node concept, it's really fibre to nowhere."
Mr
Price left the door open to participating in the network rollout. But
he said the challenge was to offer a timely and efficient service so it
attracted customers to the network.
Optus, another favourite
to roll out the network, said it was "strongly supportive" of the
decision to build the network as well as moves to overhaul the
regulatory framework.
A discussion paper released yesterday
canvasses several options to tackle the dominance of Telstra in the
Australia market, including the controversial issues of "functional
separation" that would split Telstra into network and retail arms.
The
creation of a new "open access" fibre network wholly independent of
Telstra would ensure all telecoms and internet players, including
Telstra, were treated the same.
Optus director of government
and corporate affairs Maha Krishnapillai said the Government had
"recognised the fundamental problems in our sector for the last
decade".
"We've said throughout the process that we are
prepared to invest where the regulatory settings are right," Mr
Krishnapillai said. "We want to see separation of the network. We don't
what Telstra to somehow come in the back door. We want to see genuine
open access. We want to see a strong mandated role for the (Australian
Competition and Consumer Commission)."
Mr Krishnapillai said the company would consider options to become involved in the Government's proposed network.
Paul
Twomey, the chief executive of ICANN, which looks after the internet
naming system, said the outcome had taken the best targets and lessons
on functional separation from around the world.
But Dr Twomey
said the Government and industry needed to focus on fuelling demand for
high-speed broadband with new export-oriented services and applications
such as digital conferencing.
Industry analyst Paul Budde
welcomed the move to skip the "halfway house" of FTTN and go straight
for fibre-to-the-premises. He said Australia would become a world
technology leader.
Internode managing director Simon Hackett
said he was "gobsmacked" the Government had been brave enough to take
over the rollout.
Primus chief executive Ravi Bhatia said the
plan would deliver substantial competition benefits to consumers and
businesses. "It is clear the Government is serious about addressing
Telstra's stranglehold and unlocking the competitive potential of the
industry," Mr Bhatia said.
SOURCE: AustralianIT.news.com.au
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