Cable Industry News
Optus will protect NBN from cable wars
Friday, 14, May, 2010
Speaking at the release of the company's fourth quarter and full-year results, chief executive Paul O'Sullivan said Optus would fully support and endorse protections to ensure the government's $43 billion NBN was a success.Some of those protections have been outlined in the $25 million implementation study into the viability of the NBN, including the introduction of a controversial "cherry-picker" levy to crimp the ability of Telstra and others to build high-speed networks in high-value, low-cost areas in competition with the NBN.
The study has attracted criticism for suggesting that such a levy be imposed, but Mr O'Sullivan said overbuild protections were necessary to avoid a repeat of the cable wars Optus waged with Telstra in the 1990s."When Optus rolled out its HFC (hybrid fibre coaxial) cable in the 1990s, we found that the incumbent had an incentive and it was rational for it to duplicate that network down 80 per cent of the streets we were in and engage in a price war,"Mr O'Sullivan said.
