Telstra claims it wants to adhere to Broadband Minister Stephen Conroy's request for details about its network infrastructure but will not yet do so because it is worried the information will help terrorists and threaten national security.

The federal government has asked Telstra to hand over detailed plans of its physical infrastructure to rivals.

Rival companies claim they need the information to effectively compete for the $4.7 billion in government money to build the planned fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) broadband network.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy told the former government-owned monopoly if it did not hand over the secrets voluntarily it would be forced to do so through legislation.

Telstra's head of regulatory affairs Dr Tony Warren yesterday said that Telstra wanted to hand over the information but would not as long as doing so posed a risk to national security.

Warren said Telstra had gone to great lengths to keep the information out of the wrong hands in the past.

"We're now being asked to share that information with all and sundry and clearly we're not prepared to do that without the appropriate safeguards in place, and we will be discussing with the government to make sure those safeguards are in place," Warren said.

"If this kind of information falls into the wrong hands we are of no doubt that it would be misused very effectively.

"If either criminals or ... terrorists were to get hold of the kind of information that we have, it would give them the ability to do serious damage to the communications infrastructure of governments, banks, etc."

David Forman from the Competitors Carriers Coalition has reportedly labelled Telstra's national security argument "laughable", accusing it of using a phoney excuse to keep the material secret.

Warren said Forman's comments were "quite worrying".

"This again shows that these people aren't able to be trusted with important national infrastructure," he said.