Telstra stalling on NBN migration deal

This is all to be expected, yet it’s still tiring to watch. Telstra, NBN Co and the Government have stalled in their negotiations over ‘just compensation’ for Telstra’s copper access infrastructure. I use the term ‘just’ quite deliberately and this is my value-add to the media reporting.

What we are witnessing here, as passive bystanders, are commercial game theorists at their best. In the red corner we have Telstra and in the blue corner we have NBN Co. In the middle we have a market place of knowns and unknowns (influenced very heavily by end-users and the Government). Now the two main players are trying to position themselves optimally based on second-guessing the position the other player will adopt. And each party makes assumptions about just how capable, how smart and how much the other party may (or may not) know. Unfortunately, it is not enough for NBN Co to simply represent itself as a purely independent competitive player, as they are not!

More than one way for NBN to be trans-sectoral

Wow, what a week so far. Almost every industry player, analyst and even the odd pundit here and there have come out to say something about the Governments release of draft exposure legislation for NBN Co operations. As I detailed in my last post, much of the debate is around elements of the legislation that allows NBN Co some flexibility to offer retail style services to government agencies directly. Amid all the controversy, even Senator Conroy himself has had to come forward to clarify matters in the media. However, it doesn’t end here. I believe this storm in a teacup deserves some closer attention as the experts may be missing something and the spin-doctors are just too busy spinning.

Draft NBN legislation released by DBCDE for comment

Legalese is always a dry read and legislation, especially so (disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, that is why I dislike reading this sort of thing, intently). Just over a week ago, the Australian Government released two exposure drafts of intended legislation that impacts the new NBN Co. (National Broadband Network Companies Bill 2010) and the other that impacts the rest of the telecommunications industry (Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (National Broadband Network Measures – Access Arrangements) Bill 2010). These have been released to the public for consideration and if desired, responses can be submitted back by March 15th, 2010. If sufficiently compelling arguments are raised then the legislation may be amended from its current form.

Well, let’s just say that there is a very strong likelihood that some amendments will be made based on feedback currently doing the rounds in the media.