EFA has lodged a submission on the National Broadband Network proposal. In our submission to a Senate Select Committee investigating the proposal we argued that the proposed Fibre To The Node (FTTN) model would most likely grant further monopoly power to Telstra because it would require drastic modifications to Telstra’s existing copper infrastructure through which most landline calls to domestic premises are currently carried, modifications which only Telstra would want to perform. We concluded that the benefits of a FTTN network do not outweigh the costs, and a FTTN network should not proceed. However, if an FTTN network is deployed, it is critical that its operator be structurally separated from the telecommunications carriers selling retail services.
Read EFA’s submission (PDF)