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Telecommunications Telstra takes Coonan to court over Broadband Connect funding
Telecommunications Telstra takes Coonan to court over Broadband Connect funding | Telstra takes Coonan to court over Broadband Connect funding |
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| Written by Stuart Corner | |
| Friday, 03 August 2007 | |
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According to Telstra, "The Broadband Connect Program Guidelines offered 'up to $600 million' of taxpayers' money to provide broadband to 'underserved' rural and regional areas. Telstra submitted its proposal on that basis." However, instead, almost $1 billion was ultimately awarded to the SingTel Optus and Elders consortium (Opel) to, according to Telstra "largely duplicate existing services with little net benefit to rural Australians." Telstra says it has asked the minister to explain why it was not given an opportunity to submit a revised proposal for almost $1 billion, and has asked the minister to provide it with the documents underlying her decision. It claims that the minister has refused to provide those documents. "Telstra has been left with no alternative but to seek orders from the Federal Court compelling the communications minister Helen Coonan, to provide documents relating to how the decision was made," the company said. Telstra says it has "serious concerns that it was not treated in a 'fair and equitable" manner as required by the program guidelines that were issued, and that "Telstra's proposal was aimed at serving 1,572 smaller communities where there are currently no fixed broadband services and making other network upgrades that would have given broadband access to approximately 250,000 customer lines." Telstra Country Wide group managing director, Geoff Booth, said: "Somewhere along the line the term 'underserved' seems to have been redefined so that the program was no longer about providing a service to people who don't have one to giving people in some areas access to a second or even a third network.{moscomment}
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