Telstra has until the end of June to decide on its NBN role

Time is ticking for Telstra and its involvement in Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN) project. Telstra now has until the end of June to reach an agreement with the government.

This deadline comes not long after consulting firms McKinsey and KPMG released an independent implementation study that revealed that the Australian government could cut the cost of building a nationwide fiber network if the NBN company could leverage segments of Telstra's existing network. By partnering with Telstra, Australia's NBN could reduce the cost of building the NBN by about $4.49 billion to $39 billion instead of $43 billion.

Although Telstra and the government have been discussing options since last September, neither party has been able to agree on the worth of Telstra's assets. Despite these disagreements, Australia's Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said that the discussions are far from over.           

"We are in lengthy and very complex negotiations with Telstra," he said. "If both parties felt there was no point in those discussions, we would terminate them."

For more:
- TeleGeography has this article

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