Making the announcement today, Mr Rudd described the $43 billion fibre-to-the-home scheme as the single largest infrastructure project in the country’s history and said it would create 25,000 jobs a year during construction, with 37,000 in the busiest year of construction.

“It is the most ambitious, far-reaching, and long-term nation-building infrastructure project ever undertaken by an Australian government,” said Mr. Rudd.

The network will connect 90 per cent of homes to a network with speeds of up to 100 megabits per second, with the remainder connected at 12 megabits a second.

The Government would hold a majority share in the company, which will also be part-owned by the private sector, and will invest $43 billion into the project over eight years.

The Government will then gradually sell off it’s share of the company five years after the project is completed.

Mr Rudd said the company would inject a “new competitive force” into the telecommunications market.

“Today we draw a line under a decade of policy area and neglect,” he said.

“This solves once and for all the core problem created when the previous prime minister privatised Telstra a decade ago without ever resolving the conflict of a private monopoly owning the network infrastructure and dominating the retail market.”

Mr Rudd said the broadband tender process was being scrapped because none of the submitted bids offered value for money to the taxpayer, but said anyone was open to invest in the new company.

Telstra was dropped from the bidding process last December after the Government rejected its proposal.

Mr Trujillo told analysts at Telstra’s half-yearly results in late February that the migration was “on plan” and that he would reveal whether the telco had “hit” its goal of completing the migration by the end of the 2007-08 financial year during full-year results in August.

However, a Telstra representative confirmed yesterday that progress was “satisfactory”, but that the migration of customers was still ongoing, despite the deadline.

The failure to meet the deadline is likely to see Telstra forced to continue pumping funds into running the legacy system as well as the new platform.

Telstra has not revealed any details of how many customers have already been migrated to the new billing platform.

Telstra, which had delayed its switching on of more then 900 ADSL2+ exchanges for three years until April this year, has traditionally denied competing ISPs access to its ADSL2+ network in fear that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) would force it to resell the connection to competitors at low-ball prices.

At the time of Telstra’s opening of the 900 ADSl2+ ports, the company declined to state whether or not it would offer wholesale access to its freshly unveiled high-speed service.

Telstra’s announcement that it intends to resell the ADSL2+ services suggests that the ACCC has given its assurance it would not interfere with Telstra’s wholesale pricing structure.

“Telstra Wholesale has always said that we would consider selling ADSL2+ if and when it made commercial sense to do so,” confirmed Telstra spokesperson Martin Barr in a statement.

“Since we received assurances from the ACCC that they won’t interfere we were more confident about taking a look at our commercial options,” he said

Telstra’s backflip comes as the company’s rivals heap pressure on the Federal Government to investigate splitting the telco giant into retail and wholesale operations if its national broadband network tender bid is successful.

The launch comes as a response to Australia’s growing mobile workforce, which the telco estimates has exceeded more than three million Australian mobile workers.

“Building on the success of the $0 upfront mobile phone offers that really took off in the 90s, we’ve decided the time is right to extend the same deal to mobile broadband,” said Cathy Aston, executive director of Telstra business.

“Increasingly, mobile broadband-enabled laptops are as essential as mobiles, especially for business people. They’re easy to take to many places, you can even go away for a few days, take your laptop and stay connected to the business.”

Although the laptops come at no upfront cost, customers will be bound to a 36-month long contract at $99 per month.

The $99 fee covers the cost of the hardware and broadband connection which comes with 1GB data allowance on Telstra’s Next G network. The total cost over the life of the contract comes out at $3564.

The $0 laptop package is available to Telstra Business customers through selected dealers including Harvey Norman, ICT Distribution and Techhead Interactive until June 30.

Telstra reported that two of its cables had been severed ‘by vandals’ last Saturday after telephone, Internet, fax and EFTPOS lines went down in Blacktown, Rooty Hill, Erskine Park, Arndell Park, and Shalvey.

“This is a stupid, criminal act and the community should be rightly outraged,” said a Telstra spokesperson at the time.

But NSW Police superintendent Mark Jenkins, investigating the matter, says the NSW Police is “keeping an open mind as to whether it is vandalism or an accident”.

Telstra said that the outage was the work of vandals, as the cable had been cut in “two separate locations”.

“Certainly, we believe the cables were deliberately cut … you certainly couldn’t do this by accident,” the Telstra spokesperson told AAP last week.

The NSW Police, however, have informed ZDNet.com.au that the “cable was only cut at one location” — a telecommunications access pit in Alpha St, Blacktown.

These pits are designed to give access to Telstra technicians should they need to service the network.

“There is quite a degree of skill required to get access to the cables,” says Jenkins. “It would require specialised equipment and effort.” NSW Police are speaking to a number of witnesses in the area and conducting a forensic examination of the pit.

Anybody with information is asked to contact Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000.

Speaking at the Macquarie Australian Equities conference in Melbourne this morning, the telco chief told attendants that an AU$5 million bank guarantee, along with much anticipated documentation detailing Australia’s network infrastructure, had been handed over to the Federal government in Canberra this morning, after Communications Minister Stephen Conroy wrote to Telstra and other carriers in February, insisting that they provide details on their network infrastructure.

The information was handed over to the government by senior Telstra executives today on the condition that it only be passed on to third parties after the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) agrees to the carrier’s confidentiality agreement, or when DBCDE’s own confidentiality agreement is provided and agreed to by Telstra.

According to Telstra, the company sees “no reason why this cannot happen immediately”.

Source & More Info: ZDNet

Under the contract’s terms, Telstra will supply a range of telecommunications services for defence staff, including mobile phones, fixed-line voice, fixed-line data and broadband services.

Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Procurement, Greg Combets said the contract had been negotiated as a work order under the Australian Government Information Management Office whole of government telecommunications supply arrangements.

“I want to congratulate Telstra for being chosen as the preferred supplier based on value-for-money comparison,” he said.

“This contract is anticipated to result in a cost saving to Defence in excess of $13 million per annum, and an improved level of service to Defence staff compared with previous contracts.”

Telstra Enterprise and Government, group managing director, David Thodey, said the contract win was a major one for Telstra as it represents the first time the DoD has awarded all of its voice, mobile and broadband communications requirements to a single supplier since the competitive market in telecommunications was established in 1997.

“This contract also represents a significant win back from a combination of providers, including SingTel Optus, Vodafone and AAPT,” he said.

Customers who have put off switching their service before 12am will find themselves with useless mobiles tonight.

“At midnight AEST, our engineering team will progressively turn off the CDMA network and from that time our CDMA customers won’t be able to send or receive any phone calls, text, or data,” said Telstra country wide director, Gary Goldsworthy.

Mobile calls that take place at midnight will continue until 1am and Telstra assures that all 000 calls commencing before midnight will be allowed to continue until finished.

Earlier this year, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy delayed the CDMA network’s original January 28 closure after a report released by the Australian Communications and Media Authority found insufficient equivalence between CDMA and Telstra’s Next G network.

Since then, Telstra has implemented a number of the Minister’s recommendations in an effort to bring the Next G network up to scratch. These included establishing a hotline for users experiencing Next G handset problems and sending out teams of “Coverage Advocates” to visit customers in rural areas to help them make a smooth transition to the new network.

“I am satisfied that Telstra has met the equivalence tests in its licence condition and has sufficiently rectified the problems I identified in January, including handheld handset coverage, customer information provision and the availability of equipment and services,” Conroy said in confirmation of tonight’s planned shutdown.

The CDMA shutdown will make way for the Telstra’s Next G network, which the company says will carry 7.5 times the data allowed by CDMA.

Alcatel-Lucent’s ship, the Ile de Sein, began laying the cable between Sydney and Hawaii early this year. It’s expected to be operational at the end of 2008 and, at full capacity, will deliver 1.28Tbps into the country.

The telco will be hoping it avoids the shark attacks and typhoons that have threatened to bring down other trans-Pacific fibre-optic cables.

Several years ago, an incorrectly laid cable was almost cut when it was attacked by sharks, Telstra fibre optics director Matthew Shields said.

“You try to put enough slack in the cable, so even if there’s a valley, it will end up not being suspended in any significant depth, but this particular cable did end up in that particular situation.

“Because it was being fed with an alternating current, rather than a direct current power feed, the pulsing was enough to agitate the sharks into attacking it.”

Mr Shields also said a cable between Japan and the US was cut when a typhoon near Hong Kong dropped a shipping container full of cars into the ocean.

“As the container sank, the doors had opened, the car in this container had come out and, miraculously, it had landed right on top of the cable.

“I’ve got a photo in my office of a cable ship pulling up the cable with the car still on top of it.”

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy confirmed today that Telstra has met the requirements to allow the closure of its CDMA mobile phone network from April 28.

The 10-year-old CDMA network, which at one point served almost two million mainly regional users, has long been slated for closure, but the government forced Telstra to keep it open for an extra three months amid fears users would be disadvantaged.

“I am satisfied that Telstra has met the equivalence tests in its licence condition and has sufficiently rectified the problems I identified in January, including handheld handset coverage, customer information provision and the availability of equipment and services,” Senator Conroy said at a media conference in Sydney this morning.

“Today I urge anyone who still has a CDMA phone to make the necessary arrangements to switch to another network as quickly as possible.”

Telstra has offered a range of sweeteners to regional customers including providing new handsets amid claims some regional customers were sold the wrong equipment.

The government was told in January to delay closure of the CDMA network by three months because the performance of the Next G platform in the bush was not up to scratch.

Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has called for further delay in switching off Telstra’s CDMA mobile network on the grounds that farmers raised significant concerns about the issue when he spoke with them in west New South Wales today as part of his national listening tour.

“I had a discussion with the president of the New South Wales Farmers (Association) about it, and I think there’s a very strong argument for a further delay,” he said last week.

“It’s not just farmers of course, but people living in rural Australia just haven’t got sufficient confidence in coverage at the moment for the switch-over.”

Senator Conroy confirmed Telstra had committed to continue to resolve customers’ issues through its dedicated 1800 888 888 freecall hotline and handset replacement program for people experiencing Next G coverage difficulties until 1 July 2008.

“Before these programs cease Telstra will report to me so I can assess whether the level of demand warrants an extension of the programs,” Senator Conroy said.

Beyond July 1, Telstra will continue to offer handset exchanges in genuine cases using its established mobiles customer service phone-line on 125 111.

“Following my decision in January to postpone Telstra’s CDMA closure, Telstra responded quickly to put a rectification process in place including establishing the 1800 888 888 hotline,” Senator Conroy said.

“Telstra’s hotline has been advertised in the regional and metropolitan media, on Telstra’s website and in stores. The Telstra website now provides detailed information on where Next G handsets are most effective.”

“The hotline was established to assist customers not receiving equivalent handheld coverage and as a result, Telstra has reported that thousands of those customers have received free handset upgrades or other equipment and assistance,” Senator Conroy said.

“Telstra has informed me that it will now SMS remaining CDMA customers to inform them of the switch off and the need to contact Telstra to migrate. In addition to this Telstra has committed to send two further text messages to the customers 7 days and 24 hours before switch off, as well as personally writing to all the remaining CDMA customers.

“Once the shut-down of the CDMA network is complete, Telstra will be able to focus its resources and energy on improving and expanding the Next G network, providing high levels of customer service to Next G customers, and to help the small number of customers still holding CDMA equipment.”