Conroy and Trujillo break Mexican standoff over NBN?
Conroy may have rejected Telstra's bid to build the National Broadband Network, but Adam Turner argues the fight is far from over.
Sol Trujillo and his amigos at Telstra have been holding the country's technological future to ransom during the debate over who will control the next generation of Australia's internet infrastructure. Finally someone has the cojones to stand up to them.
Telstra's arrogance in filing an NBN proposal that it knew didn't meet the requirements was a strategic gamble that most people expected to pay off. Had Communications Minister, Senator Conroy conceded and accepted the proposal, it would have made a mockery of the process - giving Telstra a green light to walk all over the government.
Over the weekend Conroy delivered a rather rude shock to Sol by rejecting Telstra's bid. This would seem to put Telstra out of the race, leaving the field wide open for the five other bidders.
"Telstra has been excluded from any further consideration in the National Broadband Network Request for Proposals process," according to a press release from Conroy's office.
"Telstra's Board will have to explain to its shareholders why it has decided to sideline itself from a process that will shape the Australian communications sector for the next decade."
Only a fool would think Telstra is really out of the race. The Request for Proposals is only one stage of the process and there's plenty of time for Telstra to get back in the game, but this time on Conroy's terms.
Telstra would seem to realise this, considering that it took the news rather well and didn't coming out with legal guns blazing. Gone today were the threats and bullying tactics, instead Telstra chairman, Donald McGauchie, implied the company would accept Conroy's ruling;
"The decision to exclude us from the RFP is the Commonwealth's decision to make. But Telstra is the only company to have submitted a proposal with a real financial commitment - of $5 billion. And Telstra is the only company with the existing technical know-how, world-leading vendor, skilled workforce, established wholesale systems and proven track record of building world-class networks."
McGauchie says Telstra will now put its efforts into DSL and cable. He might say that now, but I reckon next year you'll see a far more humble Telstra back at the NBN negotiating table.
Conroy may have knocked Telstra down a peg, but come next year the Mexican standoff will be back on again.
Other Blog Entries written by Adam Turner:
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
Comments: 2
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johnmat
Dec 16, 2008 1:03 PM
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Perhaps Telstra will go it alone on and build it's own FTTN network. If it has exclusive access to the communications ducts in the street of every town in Aust it would be able to build the network at half the cost of other contenders. Bring it on. |
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htcs
Dec 20, 2008 11:34 AM
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"Telstra is the only company with the existing technical know-how, world-leading vendor, skilled workforce, established wholesale systems and proven track record of building world-class networks."
Oh really?
Are they saying that no other company in the world can do the job?
One of the contenders is a Canadian company that has done exactly the same job in Europe.
Yes, bring it on with 2 carriers. Then we'll see some competition. It's not FTTN (fibre to the node) we need. It's FTTH (fibre to the house), otherwise consumers will still need to use Telstra infrastructure to connect to their residences. A bit pointless I say. |