Terria welcomes NBN deadline

Terria has welcomed the recommencement of the National Broadband Network (NBN) tender process which will close in 12 weeks.

Bidders will have until November 26 to submit their network designs to government, after the government was forced to stall the tender process to obtain network infrastructure data from telecommunications operators including Telstra and Optus.

Tender documents require the NBN to service 98 percent of Australians with a minimum of 12Mbps downstream, but do not discriminate against technologies.

Terria chairman Michael Egan welcomed the restart and reiterated the importance of equitable access for the NBN.

“[Open access] can only be achieved if the new network is structurally separated from any access seeker and if both price and non-price terms of access are monitored and enforced by a strong and independent regulator,” Egan said in a written statement.

“Terria believes that the goal of better, faster and cheaper Internet services can only be achieved if the new network provides genuine and assured open access for all Internet Service Providers.

“We also believe that the objectives of the NBN will be best served by giving first attention to localities currently suffering from the weakest competition and the poorest services.”

He said the 12 week deadline provides sufficient time for bidders to design and submit proposals for the $10 to $20 billion dollar network, which will receive $4.76 billion of taxpayer funds.

Egan said Terria will engage in “vigorous” debate with the government’s expert panel which will assess proposals and the regulatory environment in conjunction with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)

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