The Government has made a giant leap and will now form a company that is 51% public owned to build fibre to the premise for 90% of Australians. The remaining 10% of the Australian public that will not gain access to fibre to the premise will be supported by better wireless and satellite broadband access.

More details emerge daily and summaries of what we have learnt to date abound. What is of more interest is what we have not learnt so far through all of the press releases and statements by Government MPs. The list of things we need to know is quite large and some of the more pressing items include whether a new cable will be laid to Tasmania or will the fibres laid with BassLink to be used to overcome the current Telstra connection bottleneck to the Apple Isle. What this leads onto is the question of a second national wholesale backhaul network and whether this is going to be built independently of the existing Telstra wholesale backhaul network or will Telstra be able to offer existing infrastructure for equity in the new entity?

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The Federal Government has indicate the National Broadband Network (NBN) tender winner will be announced soon. Of more interest to people in the indusry is the legislative framework that will accompany the decision announcement. Will Senator Conroy be able to convince his colleagues to provide a truly competitive framework for the NBN such that the telecommunications sector can move forward with fair and reasonable competition for all.