SingTel Optus must come clean on whether it has handed over its network information and stop misleading the public about the National Broadband Network (NBN).

Telstra's Director Government Relations, David Quilty, said that Telstra has complied voluntarily and on-time with every request for network information. The Government has publicly recognised Telstra's significant efforts in this regard (see below).

"It is a disgrace that SingTel Optus CEO Paul O'Sullivan continues to peddle the fallacy that Telstra is holding up the NBN.  Telstra has been trying to build this network since 2005 and we want to get on with the job as soon as possible,’ Mr Quilty said.

“Mr O’Sullivan’s hypocrisy is breathtaking.  For months, he fought tooth and nail for a prolonged extension of the NBN process.  On 4 May 2008, he told Alan Kohler on ABC Inside Business that:

“We've been very clear to the Government; we are seeking an extension of the deadline by at least five months from when the information is provided.”

“Mr O'Sullivan must come clean and say whether or not SingTel Optus has submitted its network information in response to the Government’s original request in February and the further request last month.   A simple YES or NO answer will suffice.

"As the chief beneficiary of the ACCC's below-cost unbundled local loop prices, SingTel Optus has a huge incentive to delay the NBN as long as possible so it can continue to ‘cherry pick’ in the big cities, while refusing to invest capital in its own HFC – the world’s laziest cable network.

"Shame on Mr O'Sullivan for playing these silly games as Australia’s economy loses an estimated $200 million of benefits every month that the NBN is not built."