The Australian government has excluded Telstra from the National Broadband Network (NBN) RFP process, arguing the operator failed to comply with the bidding guidelines.
According to the government Telstra failed to include a plan for how it would involve small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) in the building of the NBN.
But Telstra insists it is fully compliant with the RFP requirements, arguing an SME plan was not required as part of the proposal itself, and that Telstra has already submitted its SME plan to the government.
"The commonwealth could hardly have dreamed up a more trivial reason to exclude Telstra from the NBN," Telstra chairman Donald McGauchie said.
Telstra had been widely considered a virtual lock for the tender, despite submitting an incomplete bid that also failed to match the scope of the government's NBN plans. It's main opposition, the Terria consortium, has been losing members, and - Telstra claims - has so far been unable to determine exactly where its funding will come from
McGauchie was quick to reiterate that claim, today stating, "[t]he decision to exclude us from the RFP is the commonwealth's decision to make. But Telstra is the only company to have submitted a proposal with a real financial commitment - of $5 billion.
"This is a process that seemingly excludes bidders on such trivial and legally questionable technicalities but doesn't take any action on material issues such as financing and having the technical capability to build the network."
The government plans to commit $4.7 billion to fund the construction of the NBN, which it hopes will provide high-speed fibre access to 98% of the nation's disparate population. The remaining build cost, which is estimated to total around $10 billion, will be put up by the winning bidder.