Speaking at a competition summit organized by the Service Providers Association, (SPAN), of which Telstra is a member, Telstra's general manager of regulatory affairs, Tony Warren said that while the telecommunications industry has changed rapidly since deregulation, the regulation of the industry has not.

Telstra, he said, was pushing for changes to the regulatory process because it was being unfairly treated under current regulations.

As an example, he cited the disparity in Australia's CBDs where fiber, which is supplied by a number of carriers, rather than the Telstra-owned ULL (unbundled local loop) dominates the landscape. "If the telco regime has some kind of discipline those areas won't be regulated."

Regulation needs to be modified so that it does not "choke off" investment, he said. Additionally, regulation should apply to legacy networks rather than new services.

A bone of contention for Telstra is the fact that in most capital cities an alternative to the ULL, in the form of Optus' HFC network already exists. Sydney and Melbourne, for example both have more than 80 percent penetration of Telstra-alternative networks to the home.