SYDNEY (AAP)

The head of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says anyone who doubts that telcos will build a high-speed, optic-fibre broadband network could be surprised.Australia's largest Telco, Telstra, dumped plans for a high-speed broadband network last August.That prompted the so-called "group of nine" - Optus, iinet, PowerTel, Macquarie Telecom, Primus, Soul, AAPT, Internode and TransACT - to begin planning a fibre-to-the-node network of their own.ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said he has every reason to believe the consortium is serious.

"When they first (the nine telcos) announced their proposal to potentially roll out a fibre-to-the node network, as they did last year, most of the sceptics and observers said, 'look this is a bit of kite-flying to try and bring Telstra to the table'," Mr Samuel told a Sydney luncheon."We've had some quite intensive discussion with the G9 group (of telcos) and they've indicated they will be putting to us a detailed, regulatory proposal within the next few weeks."We may have on the table a serious proposal for the rolling out of a fibre network in this country along the lines of that discussed by Telstra last year."

Mr Samuel said an Australian high-speed network is inevitable and important to the nation's economic development.He said he accepted there is some reluctance by telcos to invest because of the potential for 'overbuild' or spending too much on infrastructure.He said this problem was experienced when pay television was rolled out in Australia last decade."As one party laid its cable, so the other party came out and met it and overlaid its own cable," Mr Samuel said."That raises some really serious questions as to the economic viability of having duplicate cable being rolled out in the same area."

Mr Samuel was unwilling to expand further on the issue and said a raft of regulatory issues had to be considered."Our fundamental objective is to ensure we can have a competitive environment," Mr Samuel said."In the context of overbuild, there are some quite complex issues to deal with that aren't entirely in the realm of the ACCC but may involve some government policy."Its's not appropriate for me to comment on those," he said.
(01/03/2007 04:21:54 PM)