A Charles Sturt University (CSU) researcher who has found most Australian households think that wider availability of broadband will do little for their homes is not surprised at Telstra’s position after it was removed from the tender process for rolling out broadband across Australia.

 

“I’m not surprised Telstra has made its statement to the Australian Stock Exchange [on Monday 15 December, accusing the Federal Government of banning Telstra on trivial grounds]. As a commercial operator, I believe Telstra will get the most return on their revenue from concentrating on building their mobile broadband market through their ‘3G’ service,” said Mr Peter Adams from the University’s Faculty of Business.

 

“Businesses tendering for the national broadband network (NBN) have stated it is going to take five years to build, so meanwhile Telstra is in a prime position to leverage off the huge amount of infrastructure it already has in place in all the major population centres. They can generate a large amount of revenue while the winning bidder is still rolling out its network.”

 

Mr Adams believes it will not be an easy road for the winning bidder of the NBN.

 

“The winner will need to have legislation changed; formally sort out the details and sign a very complex contract with the Federal Government; and raise capital in what are very uncertain economic times.  On top of this, who knows what Telstra might do through the courts if it objects to any of the conditions the government might impose on it through regulation changes so that the winning bidder can access some of Telstra’s existing infrastructure?