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The gagging order, signed as part of the $800 million deal recently signed between SingTel owned Optus and NBN Co, the company charged with rollout of the controversial $36 billion broadband network, means Optus can no longer voice public criticism against the network. The ‘anti disparagement’ order means the telco will be forbidden from making “any express adverse statement” about the NBN.
However, the NBN Co insists the gagging order is confined only to the marketing of Optus’ own wireless services, which would rival the NBN service.
“Our responsibility at NBN Co is to make sure after paying these two organisations, we had fair and reasonable statements made about the NBN,” NBN CEO Mike Quigley said at the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) conference in Sydney today.
Telstra has also agreed not to promote its wireless internet services in competition to the NBN for the next 20 years.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has already questioned elements of the the NBN Co -Telstra deal, which several critics claim is an attempt to stifle competition and prop up the NBN business model.
Read Telstra Split Halted By ACCC Here
“We don’t view it as anti-competitive,” Quigley insisted, saying it will protect public interests.
The ‘binding’ agreement will see Optus shut down its hybrid fibre network (HFC)and shift its 500K-odd customers onto the National Broadband Network, which is to be completed by 2018.
In turn Mike Quigley’s NBN Co has agreed to make ‘progressive’ payments to Optus based on the number of customers that migrate from its existing network to the NBN, meaning a massive payout for the Singapore owned telco.
“The aim of these clauses in the agreement was to try and make sure that we at NBN Co protected the Australian public — the Australian taxpayer — who it is their money we are spending, to do these deals.”
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| “We wanted to make sure that if we do a deal to have customers transferred, that we looked after the interest of the public to make sure we got traffic onto the network and there was nothing said with the people that we are doing a deal with that sledges the NBN.” |
