The breakup of Telstra
(ASX:TLS) will be debated by government ministers in the Senate today.
The focus will be on legislation to split Telstra with the government reportedly considering amendments to give the ACCC greater say in the structural separation, to hopefully woo the support of crossbenchers.
The draft National Broadband broadband bill makes it mandatory that, in the establishment phase, the government maintains a majority stake in the National Broadband Network (NBN).
But once the Network is formally declared complete, the government is required to sell its stake within five years and if all goes to plan the NBN will be privatised by 2023.
The legislation also declares the network as wholesale only, meaning it will sell access to retail telecommunications companies.
But this has sparked some concern because it gives Communications Minister Stephen Conroy the discretion to relax the wholesale-only rule, potentially allowing the NBN to compete in the telecommunications market.
Telstra’s 2009 net profit was $4 billion.
