|
Telstra Sues Coonan |
|
|
|
Written by Adam Gosling
|
|
Friday, 03 August 2007 |
The executives at Australian incumbent telco, Telstra have taken the bold step of commencing proceedings in the Federal Court against the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Helen Coonan, in relation to the Broadband Connect Program.
Telstra is dirty that it didn't get its hands on a A$1 billion funding bonus from the Howard Government, which picked an Optus-Elders joint venture that goes by the name of OPEL to help built infrastructure in regional Australia.
According to a statement released by the company "The Broadband Connect Program Guidelines offered "up to $600
million" of taxpayers' money to provide broadband to "underserved"
rural and regional areas. Telstra submitted its proposal on that basis.
Instead, almost $1 billion was ultimately awarded to the SingTel Optus
and Elders consortium (OPEL) to largely duplicate existing services
with little net benefit to rural Australians.
In the statement Telstra Country Wide Group Managing Director, Geoff Booth,
said Telstra could not stand by and quietly watch $1 billion of
taxpayers' money being wasted under a process that has lacked
transparency and fell short of its stated purpose.
"Let's shed some light on this behind-closed-doors process and see how the Minister arrived at this decision." Booth said.
"Somewhere along the line the term 'under served' seems to have been
redefined so that the program was no longer about providing a service
to people who don't have one to giving people in some areas access to a
second or even a third network."
Telstra has asked the Minister to explain why it was not given an
opportunity to submit a revised proposal for almost $1 billion, and has
asked the Minister to provide it with the documents underlying her
decision. The Minister has refused to provide those documents.
Telstra has been left with no alternative but to seek orders from
the Federal Court compelling the Communications Minister Helen Coonan,
to provide documents relating to how the decision was made.
Telstra has serious concerns that it was not treated in a 'fair and
equitable' manner as required by the Program Guidelines that were
issued.
Telstra's proposal was aimed at serving 1,572 smaller communities
where there are currently no fixed broadband services and making other
network upgrades that would have given broadband access to
approximately 250,000 customer lines.
Related news items Newer news items
Older news items
|
|
|
|
