July 30, 2007 12:00am
TELSTRA chairman Don McGauchie says the telco has no immediate plans to pull out of a government tender process to build a high-speed broadband network, despite threats by chief executive Sol Trujillo.
Mr Trujillo warned last month that if a decision on the national fibre optic network was not made by the end of July, the company would pull out.But Mr McGauchie today said while pulling out was still a possibility, he denied Telstra would withdraw tomorrow, July 31.
"I think it is a little too early to say that is going to be the outcome," Mr McGauchie told journalists.
"But it is a possible outcome if this process delays us too long or is not workable."
Telstra scrapped plans to spend about $4 billion on a so-called fibre-to-the node network (FTTN) last year after reaching a stalemate with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) over how much it could charge rivals to access to the network.
But in June the Federal Government set up an expert panel to review high-speed broadband in Australia, laying the foundation for a tender process to decide which company or companies will build a high-speed network to service capital cities across Australia.
The panel's report will not be finalised before the federal election, expected around November this year - a delay that has rankled Telstra.
Telstra and its main rival, the Optus-led G9 group, are vying for the national project.
Australia's biggest telco is already smarting from the government's decision to award the Optus consortium almost $1 billion to build a high-speed broadband network to service regional Australia.
"We won't sit around and wait," Mr McGauchie said at an Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce lunch in Sydney today.
"We can't afford to let the opportunities to exist for us to invest in our alternatives pass us by.
"Where the point of no return is, I'm not exactly sure."
Mr McGauchie accused the G9 of delaying progress toward the construction of a FTTN broadband network, singling out Optus' parent company, Singapore Telecommunications Ltd.
"What we're seeing . . . is a significant delay in investment, and I don't know whether we'll get a satisfactory outcome," he said.
"We've got $4 billion in shareholders' funds, earmarked, approved, ready to invest.
"We've got the business plans structured, we've got the engineering plans ready to go, we could be out there.
"SingTel have a view that they've had a great win from this because they've stopped Telstra from moving forward.
"Now, maybe I'm getting a little bit too paranoid here, but sometimes it is only the paranoid that survive, but you ask yourself the question: Is it in the interest of the government of Singapore to have Australia moving forward quickly in high speed communications? Or is it more to their advantage to have us being held back?"
Mr McGauchie said the Telstra was already spending part of the $4 billion allocated to the FTTN network, but declined to say more about the projects to which the money was being allocated.
"We're already going down that path . . . we're doing a range of things," he said.
"We're investing the most where the regulator is not impeding us."
The government panel set to decide who builds the FTTN network includes Treasury secretary Ken Henry, ACCC executive Joe Dimasi, former AGL chief executive Len Bleasel and Caltex chairman Dick Warburton.
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