THE head of Australia’s No. 2 telco says proposed legislative amendments for the National Broadband Network will fail to create the desired level playing field for all industry players.
Optus chief executive Paul O’Sullivan says he is “very concerned” with the 23 pages of amendments that Communications Minister Stephen Conroy tabled in the Senate on Wednesday.
“We and many in the industry have spent quite a bit of time working through the consultation process to provide feedback on the draft Bills and the Bill that is now before Parliament,” Mr O’Sullivan told a business lunch in Sydney yesterday.
“These new amendments have thrown us a curve ball.”
The amendments covered the role of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, and the ability of commercial telcos to lay their own broadband cables.
The changes also concerned the ability of NBN Co, the government-funded body slated to build the $36 billion network, to sell services directly to businesses such as banks and utilities and bypass telco providers such as Optus, Telstra and others.
……
Read full article here via Herald Sun
