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PRESS RELEASE
Australia: Government paralysis threatens Broadband future says CEPU
Union officials have reacted with dismay to the announcement that Telstra will not proceed with investment in a Fibre-to-the-Node (FTTN) network and have called for immediate action from the Government to address the deadlock between Telstra and the ACCC over the issue
Officials from the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) said that the breakdown of talks between Telstra and the ACCC over access pricing threatened $4 billion in infrastructure investment and millions more in training expenditure.
"Australia can't afford to lose this investment", Communications Division President, Colin Cooper said. "We are already falling behind other developed countries when it comes to high speed communications services."
"We have a national fixed telecommunications network which urgently needs upgrading, as Telstra has itself at last admitted. And we have a communications workforce which needs to be skilled up to operate the next generation of communications infrastructure."
"But none of this will happen unless we have the right policy and regulatory settings. And that's the Government's responsibility."
Mr. Cooper said that the Federal Government's role in the FTTN stalemate was a disgrace and showed it had no strategy for ensuring Australia remained abreast of international communications developments.
"First they threw Telstra's proposal for a minimum 6Mb/s national broadband network in the bin because they saw it as a distraction from the privatization debate," Mr. Cooper said. "Now they are sitting on their hands while the only realistic plan for a fixed network upgrade turns to ashes in front of them."
"Meanwhile, they tinker at the policy edges with programmes which are designed to keep the Nationals happy but which don't offer a comprehensive national solution for this country's broadband needs."
Mr. Cooper dismissed suggestions from ACCC chair Graeme Samuel that recent FTTN proposals from the so-called G9 group represented a viable alternative to a Telstra roll-out.
"For a start, these plans are largely predicated on a divestiture of the Telstra copper network, which isn't going to happen," Mr. Cooper said. "And the idea that the G9 group will go it alone without Telstra is far-fetched."
'How likely is it that Singtel and Telecom New Zealand, for instance, will sink billions of dollars into Australian infrastructure development - especially if the assets they create are not allowed to get a good commercial return?"
Mr. Cooper said that as long as the Government left crucial decisions affecting network investment in the hands of the ACCC, the current paralysis would continue.
"The ACCC doesn't have a nation-building brief," Mr. Cooper said. "That's the Government's job."
"Australian's didn't elect Graeme Samuel to decide their communications future. They elected John Howard and Helen Coonan - and they're making a hash of it because all they can think about is selling Telstra off."
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