Conroy cancels Optus/Elders broadband deal

• Cara Tobin
• 3 April 2008

Photo credit: Parliament of Australia: Senate Pulling the billion-dollar rug out from underneath the feet of the Optus/Elders consortium (aka Opel) on a day normally known for practical jokes is no laughing matter. On April 1st, Senator Stephen Conroy, Federal Minister for Communications, cancelled the contract with Opel after internal analysis of the data by his department concluded the Opel network would only cover approximately 72 per cent of "identified underserved premises", not the 90% the government commissioned.

Opel, of course, disagrees vehemently, accusing the Senator of basing his decision on flawed data. Optus CEO, Paul O'Sullivan, claims there were serious errors in the data passed on to Opel.

So, who to believe? Telstra is jumping up and down maniacally on the government's side now that they have a second chance to put forward a tender. The big T has also dropped its legal pursuit to view the relevant documents regarding the Howard government's decision to award the contract to Opel.

The government's undercutting of the deal has reopened plenty of wounds. The snatch-back of a billion dollars is not something that deep yoga breathing will help anyone come to terms with anytime soon, especially when millions of dollars have already been spent in preparation.

One can only hope that Senator Conroy had the correct information when he came to the decision to tear the contract in half.

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