http://www.abc.net.au/insidebusiness/content/2009/s2636533.htmMIK...

http://www.abc.net.au/insidebusiness/content/2009/s2636533.htm

MIKE QUIGLEY, NBN EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN: Well for somebody who's spent most of their career, in fact almost all of my career, in telecommunications, this is a wonderful opportunity to bring high speed broadband conn. activity across the nation.

ALAN KOHLER, PRESENTER: Yesterday the final bit of rug was pulled from under Telstra's existence as an integrated company; that was the appointment of Mike Quigley as executive chairman of the national broadband network.

Quigley is a good get. He was born in the UK but educated and raised in Australia. He spent 36 years at Alcatel, the French telecoms business, finishing up in 2007 as president and chief operating officer following its merger with lucent.

Now, a lot of people are asking whether the NBN can be viable. I think the question is whether Telstra can be viable up against it. And Telstra shareholders are understandably infuriated.

They bought this company from the government for about $25 billion and now, just 12 months after the final instalment was paid, the Government is disembowelling it.

Telstra can choose between competing against a Government-owned network with the latest technology, a massive budget and a world-class executive running it, or it can sell its own network back to the Government in return for shares in this NBN.

But it's Hobson's choice. Here's Mike Quigley to explain why.

MIKE QUIGLEY: Certainly in terms of scale, there's been some large roll-outs across the world but probably nothing quite this visionary, in terms of something that's being done nationwide. But the actual technology itself - I think it's an excellent time to be investing in fibre to the home technology.

ALAN KOHLER: When Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said on this program last week that he'd happily consider giving Telstra shareholders direct ownership of the NBN in return for their network as long as the Government held 51 per cent of it, the reaction from many of those shareholders was fury.

They own a perfectly good network that they bought off the Government and why, they wanted to know, are we being forced back into partnership with the government in a new one that might not be viable?

Well, this is the legacy of Sol Trujillo and Donald McGauchie, the former CEO and chairman. They and the Telstra board refused to cooperate with either this Government or the previous one.

Now this one has said 'stuff you Telstra', and, in the words of Sol Trujillo 'catch the program or catch the bus'.

And the program is now rolling, starting yesterday in Tasmania.

KEVIN RUDD, PRIME MINISTER: We will start feeding the first fibre-optic cable into trenches in August; we'll start digging new trenches come October; we'll start connecting the first homes come the end of the year and our objective is to turn on these new services come July, next year.

Australia will be fundamentally changed in the way we do business as a result.