The federal government has disqualified Telstra from bidding to build the national broadband network, according to a statement issued by Telstra to the Australian Stock Exchange today.
The statement says the government has disqualified Telstra on the grounds that its plan did not include details of how it would include small and medium business in the rollout process. Telstra refutes that claim and says it submitted a small business plan in December and that this element of its proposal was fully compliant with the government’s requirements and the bid process.
The deadline for submissions was 26 November.
Telstra Chair Donald McGauchie said the government could not have “dreamed up a more trivial reason to exclude Telstra” and said the company will continue to invest in its other networks.
CEO Sol Trujillo has since told analysts that he believes the government may yet to turn to Telstra to build the network, as the expert panel assessing proposals will make a non-binding recommendation of a builder. Trujillo says the government is free to choose a provider that is not recommended to it and that Telstra will be happy to become involved in discussions about its role in an NBN build at that time.