The Australian government has reaffirmed its intention to privatise the A$43 national broadband network (NBN), once it is operational, according to media reports.
This statement follows a statement by the Greens party earlier that day saying that it had…
The Australian government has reaffirmed its intention to privatise the A$43 national broadband network (NBN), once it is operational, according to media reports.
This statement follows a statement by the Greens party earlier that day saying that it had struck a deal with the government that would make the privatisation of NBN more difficult.
In exchange for the Greens supporting a Senate bill which will see the separation of Telstra’s retail and wholesale arms, the government reportedly promised that NBN would not be automatically privatised without parliamentary approval.
Last week, the House of Representatives passed the Telstra separation bill. The draft legislation, which will pave the way for the rollout of the NBN, is now going before the Senate before it can be passed into law.
At the end of June, Australian telecoms incumbent Telstra signed a nonbinding agreement to participate in the rollout. Under the terms of the agreement, NBN will pay Telstra about A$11bn (US$9.6bn) in phased payments in return for the decommissioning of Telstra’s copper network and transferring its customers across to a new fibre-optic network. The agreement will also see the separation of Telstra’s retail and wholesale arms, in order to encourage competition.
