The much touted Telstra Next G Network which has been billed as one of the fastest in the world is under threat after Telstra Chief executive David Thodey admitted last week that the telco had chosen to cut a deal with the NBN Company that restricts the way Telstra will be able to sell and promote their wireless network which is not being sold to NBN Co.Thodey told SmartHouse during a recent Q&A that their Next G Wireless network will only be a small part of Telstra’s offering under the new agreement. It’s also emerged that the Federal Government is set to restrict the way Telstra promote themselves in the future when dealing with a potentially new NBN customer.
A clause contained in Telstra’s $11 billion deal with the NBN Co and the government to gradually disconnect its copper network and provide access to certain infrastructure for 30 years prevents Telstra from selling the Next G service which could be as fast if not faster in the future than some of the new NBN fibre broadband services.
“The only constraint, and it’s a very, very minor constraint, is to directly put a little pamphlet into someone’s house that says ‘do not buy NBN fixed broadband, buy our wireless broadband instead.’ That’s the only constraint,” Mr Thodey told the ABC’s Inside Business program yesterday.
Telstra has vowed to aggressively promote its wireless network, arguing the telco’s agreement not to promote wireless internet as a substitute for the National Broadband Network is a minor constraint.
Mr Thodey said the “anti-sledging” clause was “very, very specific.”
“It is only a very limited constraint of a direct substitution for NBN fixed broadband, so I don’t think it’s an issue at all.”
According to the Australian newspaper, Merrill Lynch analysts have described the restrictions on promoting wireless as a substitute for fibre as negative for the company, while Morgan Stanley said this was difficult to future-proof “given the pace of technological change and the commercial requirement to serve customer needs.”
While Optus has signed an $800 million deal to shut down its cable network and migrate 500,000 customers to NBN, it is unclear whether it has signed a similar anti-sledging clause.
NBN Co spokesman Andrew Sholl said that “clauses in the Optus agreement are up to Optus to disclose.”
The Australian said that Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has ruled that Telstra’s migration plan for switching customers from its fixed-line networks to the NBN must include prohibitions on certain types of marketing activity by Telstra’s staff.
Telstra workers will be banned from marketing when they are at a premises on behalf of NBN Co and are connecting a retail customer to a fixed-line service on the NBN Co’s fibre network — unless the federal government tells Telstra to do the marketing or it relates to the universal service obligation that ensures basic telephone services are available to all Australians, no matter where they live.