X
Government

Telstra fails to meet NBN deal vote date

Telstra has announced that its $11 billion deal with the National Broadband Network Company won't be finalised in time for its shareholders to vote on by the 1 July deadline.
Written by Josh Taylor, Contributor

update Telstra has announced that its $11 billion deal with the National Broadband Network Company won't be finalised in time for its shareholders to vote on by the 1 July deadline.

The negotiations for the deal that would see Telstra decommission its copper network, provide NBN Co access to its ducts and pipes and move customers onto the NBN have been ongoing for several months. At Telstra's half-year results in February, the company said it had agreed on provisional commercial terms for the deal and laid down 1 July as the date for the company's shareholders to vote on whether the deal would be accepted.

The telco has, however, today announced to the Australian Stock Exchange that, due to the required time frames for ministerial processes, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission processes and Telstra's extraordinary general meeting processes, the 1 July deadline is "no longer practicable".

Telstra could not set down a new deadline but said it would inform shareholders of an alternate date once it had been decided.

NBN Co said in a statement that the change in deadline would not impact the construction at first release sites, due to be completed in April. However, the government-owned company advised that it would be taken into account in determining timing for the second release sites.

Updated at 12:47pm, 18 March 2011: comment from NBN Co added.

Editorial standards