Telstra has used Optus’s recent network troubles in Queensland as the basis of a scathing attack on the telco, suggesting that Optus is unfit to handle a national broadband network.
Geoff Booth and David Quilty, group managing directors at Telstra, issued a joint statement yesterday criticising both Optus’s network in Queensland and its commitment to investing in future networks.
According to the joint statement, "Optus must apologise to the Queensland public for grossly misleading them about the cause of its massive network failure last month.”
An Optus spokesperson told VoiceandData.com.au that the telco had already apologised to its Queensland customers, through adverts which appeared in print media.
The Telstra statement went on to say that Optus has announced it needs to build a new back-up fibre-optic link to “bring its network up to a reliable standard”.
This fact, the Telstra spokesmen said, calls into question Optus’s claim that the outage was a result of a highly unlikely set of circumstances.
But Optus revealed that this comment was based on incorrect information.
“Optus will not be laying an additional fibre link to Queensland,” an Optus spokesperson said. “We are leasing additional capacity from another carrier using the carrier’s existing fibre link.”
The Telstra spokesmen also claimed that Optus is unwilling to invest significantly in network infrastructure, and that it’s “anti-investment strategy” relies on “regulatory free-kicks”.
The Optus spokesperson replied: “Optus invests more than $1 billion annually in improving Australia’s telecoms networks, products and services.”
Booth and Quilty took a final dig at Optus, calling its ability to handle a national broadband network into question.
"Australia must make a multi-billion [dollar] investment in a world-class high-speed broadband network. Optus's mounting litany of embarrassing failures shows it is not fit to be considered as a builder of such an important network for this country's future,” they said.
