Telstra calls for major amendments on telecom revamp bill

Australian telco Telstra has come out strongly against the federal government's plan to revolutionise the telecommunications industry. The telco says the forced separation of its businesses as envisioned by the Labour government's plan would cost it more than $1.2 billion.

According to Telstra, the planned changes threaten to undermine the government's ambitious high-speed broadband strategy, disadvantage regional and rural customers and hit industry competition.

The telco has called for major amendments to the government's bill and appealed to the Senate to defer debate on the proposal until its negotiations with the government over the ambitious $43-billion national broadband network were completed.

In his submission to an inquiry into the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment Bill, Telstra CEO David Thodey has stressed on the telco's support to the NBN, but pointed to several assumptions and obstacles that would likely hinder the project.

Thodey said that while it would continue to support the governments' vision for the NBN, it believed the bill, which makes it harder for the government to achieve its objectives for the NBN was not required.

The $43-billion network to be built as a public private partnership aims to provide download speeds of up to 100 megabits per second.