Telstra joins the NBN

This is just in, and I’ll publish as the Press Release, until next week when I’ll bring you an interview with Telstra on what this means for you….

Essentially, Telstra have signed a Heads of Agreement with the NBN co, which allows them to meet the June 30 deadline, but also allows them more time to negotiate exactly what they will do, what they will get, what they will provide.

read more…

Opinion:

Reading through this, it appears Telstra will now embrace the NBN as the backbone for its Telephony and Broadband services into the future.  This is a huge vote of confidence in the NBN, and essentially means the whole investment can a) be cheaper and b) have more purpose than ‘just internet’.

In terms of expense, the NBN’s forecast 43Billion will now reduce (by how much we are yet to know), because this deal will likely give the NBN access to Telstra trenches – having that means less digging, cheaper roll out and all round good news.

Telstra’s release (below) seems to indicate that essentially the NBN will be the future for telephony, allowing them to ‘progressively migrate’ their ‘voice and broadband traffic’ off its copper and cable networks.  The Cable network will remain in place for use as part of the FOXTEL platform.

More reliable phone services, hopefully cheaper phone services – we can all but hope.

Don’t hold your breath though, it’s going to be months and months before we get the nitty gritty details – then again, it’s going to be years before the NBN is a reality for the majority.  But, we now wait in hope!

TELSTRA PRESS RELEASE:

Telstra today signed a non-binding Financial Heads of Agreement with NBN Co to participate in the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN).

The transaction, if completed, would deliver to Telstra a post-tax net present value of approximately $11 billion. This includes payment for the decommissioning of Telstra’s copper network and cable broadband service, use of Telstra’s infrastructure, and the value to Telstra of avoiding costs, including certain Universal Service Obligation (USO) costs. Payments would be made progressively to Telstra.

The transaction would see Telstra progressively migrate its voice and broadband traffic from its copper and cable networks to NBN Co’s network as it is rolled out. Telstra will continue to use its cable network to meet its pay TV contract with FOXTEL.

Telstra Chairman Catherine Livingstone said the milestone was encouraging after a year of complex negotiations.

“The Heads of Agreement is consistent with the Government’s high-speed broadband vision and desired industry structure. This agreement reflects a commitment by all parties to reaching a mutually beneficial outcome for Telstra investors, customers, employees and the industry,” Ms Livingstone said.

Telstra Chief Executive Officer David Thodey said: “We will continue to work with the Government and NBN Co on the detail required to implement the principles agreed today. While today’s agreement is an important step, a very significant amount of work must still be done on many complex issues.”

These issues are as diverse as migration processes, taxation, the future of legacy regulations applying to Telstra and the consequences of any major changes to the NBN rollout schedule.

While the Government is not a party to the Heads of Agreement, Telstra has received written confirmation from the Prime Minister that Telstra would be able to bid for Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless spectrum should the transaction be completed and that sufficient regulatory certainty will be provided on a range of matters for NBN Co and Telstra to enable the transaction to proceed.

In addition to requiring shareholder approval, the Heads of Agreement has a range of conditions, including the passage of necessary enabling legislation and ACCC approval. Accordingly, there can be no guarantee at this time that the transaction will progress to completion.

The Heads of Agreement provides the framework for definitive agreements to be negotiated over the coming months. Should those agreements be finalised Telstra expects they would be put to shareholders in the first half of calendar 2011. Shareholders and investors would receive comprehensive detail in relation to the definitive agreements and an independent expert’s report on the transaction well before the shareholder vote.