update Eleven of Australia's second-tier telcos and Internet service providers have banded together to fight against what they describe as a "campaign of misinformation" by Telstra on the subject of telecommunications regulation.
AAPT/PowerTel, Austar, iiNet, Internode, Macquarie Telecom, Primus, Telarus, TransACT, Unwired and Westnet today launched their "Tell The Truth Telstra" or "T4" campaign in Canberra to "educate" legislators and the public about what they describe as "the facts behind the state of broadband and telecommunications regulation in Australia".
"Telstra is pushing the false impression that Australia's regulatory regime somehow ignores its costs and legitimate business interests," a statement issued by the group this morning said.
"This is not the case, and if past performance is any indicator, Telstra is on a rampage to force both sides of politics to weaken the Trade Practices Act so it can increase prices."
The group's plans come as Communications Minister Senator Helen Coonan recently appeared to give ground on the issue of modifying Australia's telecommunications regulatory regime to facilitate the construction of a nationwide fibre broadband network by Telstra. The construction of such a network would affect infrastructure investments made by many telcos in the group.
"Now Telstra is acting as though it can hold the country to ransom -- positioning itself as the only company that can deliver fibre to the node (FTTN) and demanding to be allowed to increase prices before it will do so," the group said.
A rival consortium of Telstra's competitors known as the G9 -- and including many of the telcos making noise today -- is currently preparing an alternate fibre network proposal.
"A new network investment is a once in a generation opportunity -- we can't afford to get it wrong. FTTN is too important to Australia's future to leave it in the hands of one corporation -- a corporation that has a history of stifling competition and artificially inflating prices," said the group.
The 11 telcos -- through its lawyers Nicholls Legal -- has also written to Telstra and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) with a list of complaints about various public statements made by Telstra, that the group feels breach the Trade Practices Act due to their claimed misleading nature.
Of particular concern to the group is Telstra's "misrepresentation" of the price of using its broadband infrastructure, Telstra's ability to recover its costs, and the government's ability to direct Telstra where to build infrastructure.
The group of 11 telcos wants Telstra to undertake not to misrepresent facts in these areas in future, and publish a correction about the matters on its Now We Are Talking Web site and in The Australian newspaper.
If Telstra doesn't comply, the group is threatening to make a formal complaint to the ACCC about the matters.
The other side of the fence
Telstra spokesperson Rod Bruem said the telco welcomed the group of 11 to the debating table.
However, he said it was disappointing that the group had chosen to focus on "anti-Telstra rhetoric" rather than constructive solutions for Australia's broadband future.
"That's not surprising, given that most of these companies at the moment are making very good profits by piggy-backing on Telstra's copper, and serving people within one or two kilometres of major city telephone exchanges," Bruem said. "Their business case is very much wedded to maintaining an outdated telephone network that's been pumped up to provide broadband.
"The whole point of Telstra's broadband campaign, was to try and create the need for change to a 21st century broadband network," he said.
According to Bruem, Telstra would be happy to post the 11 telcos' letter of demand on Telstra's Now We Are Talking Web site, however he ruled out issuing corrections.
"We stand by every statement we've made. We're not taking their letter all that seriously," he said. "We'll send them a response making that clear. Truth is our defence."
Bruem also labelled today's announcement as proof that the G9 fibre consortium led by Optus was dead. "If consortiums worked, today would have been a G9 announcement, not a G11 announcement," he said. "Where was Optus today?"
An Optus spokesperson said the company wasn't directly involved in the initiative but was aware of the work that was taking place behind the scenes. "We are confident T4 will stimulate discussion and debate about broadband competition and regulation."
The Optus spokesperson expressed support for the T4 initiative, describing the content on the group's fledgling Web site as "excellent".
Great to finally see a combined industry effort to counter the misleading and shameful rhetoric from Telstra.
And in response to Bruem's claim that the G9 is dead, wake up! This is an 'Industry' response, not the preserve of G9.
And perhaps Optus is keeping a low profile to avoid your pathetic nationalistic hype against 'foreign owned' companies.