When Kevin Rudd, as Opposition Leader, committed to a National Broadband Network last year, he rightly described broadband as “a great enabling technology”, driving business productivity, scientific discovery and Labor’s education revolution.

At the time, Mr Rudd set “a very clear-cut timetable” for that network to be completed and yesterday his Government set the deadline for lodging proposals to build it.

Telstra and anyone else with the financial and organisational capacity to build the network - essentially a major upgrade to Telstra’s existing network – have until November 26 to submit bids. The project will cost more, require more manpower, and demand greater logistical detail than even the Snowy Mountains Scheme.

The importance of building a high-speed broadband network cannot be underestimated. High-speed broadband will be a key driver of the nation’s future economic growth and competitiveness and, as a result, the National Broadband Network is an urgent nation-building task. A Telstra study shows that Australia loses at least $200 million every month that the network is delayed.

That is why, when the government asked for information about Telstra’s existing network, we provided details before the deadline. It is why we have continued to press for this network ever since Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo first raised the issue in 2005. It is why we have already engaged the world’s leading network builder, Alcatel-Lucent, to ensure we are ready to build.

In the future, people will think of broadband connectivity as we do electricity today: it’s anywhere you want it, instant, and available at the flick of a switch. We stand on the cusp of a brave new fully-networked, high-definition world, and if Australia fails to embrace this world, we will be left behind and forced to play catch-up.

Australians want and deserve a world-class national broadband network using the latest fibre-optic technology. The key question is: Who can be trusted to build and operate this vital national infrastructure?

It involves going down virtually every street in Australia to upgrade the copper phone network Telstra has built and maintained for more than a century. It will involve thousands of skilled technicians and their highly specialised equipment. It will involve intimate knowledge of Australia’s communications network, including some our most sensitive and sophisticated national security infrastructure.

At the moment, we know the choices include Telstra or an $8 shelf company called Terria which has never built nor operated anything, let alone the most complex infrastructure project ever undertaken in Australia.

Telstra stands ready and able to build it for Australia but we, like any company, have a responsibility to ensure that this multi-billion dollar investment is in our 1.4 million Australian shareholders’ interests.

In recent months, there have been questions about what the new network will mean for competition in the telecommunications industry. The answer is that the network will herald an exciting new era of competition, choice and innovation, as long as there is a strong commitment to providing open access to the network.

Telstra has made a watertight commitment to open access. Let me repeat it: the National Broadband Network will be open to Telstra’s competitors to use on an equivalent basis as Telstra itself. We expect this requirement to be enshrined in legislation and policed by the ACCC. We welcome such provisions.

Sly suggestions by our competitors to break up Telstra might be good for their foreign owners, but it won’t provide greater choices for Australian businesses and consumers. They are a provocation and a distraction as those making them know that Telstra’s Board will not let our shareholders suffer by bidding under those circumstances.

As Telstra Chairman Donald McGauchie has said, separation of Telstra would stop, rather than advance, the building of the National Broadband Network. That would be a travesty. Australia would continue to miss out on the benefits of the global broadband revolution.

The separation experiment has not worked anywhere it has been tried around the world. The bottom line is that we need to end talk of breaking up one of Australia’s great companies and get on with the job of meeting Prime Minister Rudd’s timetable. That will be an achievement that will benefit every Australian.

Learn more:

• First interview with new GMD - Listen to David Quilty talk to nowwearetalking about the priorities for the National Broadband Network and why Telstra is Australia's most important company. 

"Telstra committed to open access for rivals" (business.theage.com.au)
Op-ed by David Quilty published in The Age - Business Day
5 September 2008