ACCC chief Rod Sims rules out Telstra buying NBN

ACCC chief Rod Sims has made it that clear Telstra can’t buy the NBN under its current structure.

Telstra would need to completely separate its infrastructure arm for it to be allowed to combine with the NBN, the ACCC says.

ACCC chief Rod Sims has made it that clear Telstra can’t buy the NBN, effectively killing talk that the two might combine when the national network’s build is completed in 2020.

“Telstra will not be allowed to buy the NBN,” Mr Sims told The Australian.

Speculation about a combination increased when Telstra split its infrastructure arm into a separate unit earlier this year.

But according to Mr Sims, for any link-up to happen, Telstra would have to spin-off its infrastructure arm into a completely separate unit.

Telstra’s infrastructure arm, run by Brendon Riley, has $10 billion in assets, including all the cabling ducts NBN is leasing from the company.

NBN chief Stephen Rue told The Australian earlier this month that “all we are focused on now is completing the build to 11.6 million homes by 2020.

“What happens next remains to be seen.”

ACCC chairman Rod Sims. Picture Kym Smith

Opposition telecommunications spokesman Michelle Rowland said she may consider writing down the value of NBN if the ALP was elected next year.

But the Coalition government has ruled out any writedown and NBN chair Ziggy Switkowski has said none is under consideration.

Dr Switkowski has said the beneficiaries of such a move would be Telstra and the other carriers and just why one would considered now was not clear.

A combination of the Telstra infrastructure arm and the NBN would be a logical fit, but Mr Sims made clear it would only be approved if Telstra completely separated.

This could happen via a demerger along the lines of the Wesfarmers-Coles demerger.

But unlike that deal, there would be no ongoing shareholding and no Telstra representatives on the new company’s board.