Updated
The deal will let the NBN use Telstra's existing network and infrastructure (AAP: NBNCO, file photo)
The Australian Stock Exchange has confirmed Telstra and NBN Co have signed an $11 billion agreement to allow the new high-speed broadband network to use Telstra's existing network and infrastructure.
In a statement, the ASX says the agreement will be for 35 to 40 years and will mean Telstra hands over all its broadband services to the NBN over the 10 years it will take for the new network to be completed.
Telstra will recommend to its shareholders that the deal be accepted.
The ASX says Telstra and NBN Co have agreed to product features and pricing for voice and data services - but these are yet to be released.
As part of the deal, Telstra has promised to spend $2 billion on upgrading infrastructure and migrating customers to the NBN.
Telstra's CEO, David Thodey, said the agreement ended the uncertainty surrounding Telstra's possible association with NBN Co and would allow his company to focus on customer service.
The agreement remains subject to approval by the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission as well as the shareholder approval which will go to a vote on October 18.
Telstra chairman Catherine Livingstone described the two-year negotiations as "complex", but said the decision to participate was made because Telstra could recover more value for the business "given the loss of value after NBN policy announcements".
The Government has signed off on the deal, which means the NBN will rent Telstra's underground network and start taking over its fixed-line phone customers.
But Coalition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull says it could be done more cheaply.
Mr Turnbull is critical of part of the deal that means Telstra and Optus will both agree not to use their pay TV cables to provide broadband services.
He said the NBN should use some of Telstra's copper phone lines to deliver the broadband more cheaply - but the deal makes no provision for that.
"What it is doing is wiping out any potential competition with the NBN," he said.
"Now these HFC cables, pay TV cables, pass well over 30 per cent of Australian households and they would be able to provide real competition with the NBN network and of course keep prices low."
Mr Turnbull said the deal was risky for taxpayers, who ultimately own the NBN.
"If it were decided, as it should be, to use a mix of technologies to deliver fast broadband to all Australians and to use a portion of the copper network, the Government will have to go and pay Telstra even more billions. Pay twice for the same copper network," he said.
Mr Turnbull said it would be too expensive for many of those who currently do not have internet access.
"It is poverty that is denying people access to the digital economy, not technology," he said.
"So you've got to have as a key priority making your access to broadband more affordable. The NBN, because they're wasting so many billions of dollars unnecessarily, will make it less affordable."
First posted
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/23/3251290.htm
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