The CCC represents the interests of non-dominant telco carriers in Australia such as iiNet, Hutchison, TransACT and Primus, and according to its website advocates "pro-competition policy and regulation". Budde is chairing Broadband World Australia 2008 taking place Wednesday and Thursday this week in Sydney, and along with the CCC has been a proponent of an open access next-generation National Broadband Network (NBN).
Both Budde and the CCC believe Telstra wants to carry over the monopoly it currently holds over telecommunications infrastructure onto the NBN, whose tender is . They have warned throughout the NBN debate that a Telstra owned and operated NBN would continue the of Australia's current telecommunications industry, where among the highest OECD prices for the poorest speeds. They argue Telstra should undergo some to split the incumbent's retail and wholesale arms to remove the incentive to favour itself.
Telstra has by stating that a call for separation is a , fearing that any form of separation would unfairly hit its shareholder's back pockets.
The CCC issued a press release on Tuesday stating that Terrapinn did not bow to Telstra's demands that it remove the CCC from Broadband World Australia if it wanted Telstra to meet its commitment to provide a speaker at the event, after the CCC indicated it would not voluntarily step down.
"[Telstra] said it would not attend because the NBN bids had not been submitted and because it did not like the 'balance' of a panel discussion," the release said.
Budde told ARN he offered to stand aside to be replaced by a Telstra nominee as moderator of the panel session to placate Telstra, but said the telco rejected the compromise and instead pulled out altogether. He said it was totally inappropriate for Telstra to interfere with the scheduling of an independent conference organiser.
"It clearly shows a total abuse of its dominant power, this is what I call an absolute interference in freedom of speech," Budde said.
"It's a commercial activity for Terrapinn, these people live for conferences, but they stuck to their guns and said 'no, we are an independent conference organisation and we are not going to do that'. So Telstra said 'OK, we withdraw'."
A Telstra spokesperson told ARN that it was originally envisaged the Conference would occur after the lodgement of proposals under the National Broadband Network RFP.
"With the later lodgement date, this is no longer the case. The combination of the need to maintain confidentiality under the National Broadband Network RFP and the inability to reach agreement on a fair and balanced panel meant that regrettably Telstra was no longer in a position to participate," the spokesperson said.
Telstra has participated in regarding the NBN where the CCC has been present.
Budde said Telstra's claims of bias were unwarranted, and insisted as chair of the conference he was committed to fully representing their case.
"I can understand their case, I might not agree with it, but I can understand their case and we need to discuss their side of the story, but now that is not possible and that is an unfortunate situation," he said.
Pulling out of the conference was another example of Telstra's 'my way or the highway' attitude, Budde said, pointing to the ultimatum it gave the government that if any form of separation was entertained Telstra would in the NBN, despite its of the national economy's on the NBN and its position as the of rolling it out.
"Telstra's attitude is you take our bus, or you take no bus. That's their attitude and everybody who is against them is either unbalanced or biased. They have millions of dollars to spend on PR and it's very difficult for people who are victims of their attack to actually defend themselves," Budde said.
Telstra's wholesale group managing director Kate McKenzie had been scheduled to put forward Telstra's position regarding the regulatory framework of the NBN, and according to Budde her spot has now been filled by former Telstra employee David Havyatt.
"David is an absolute stalwart. He has been in the industry for 23 years, he has worked for Telstra and knows them inside out... to be honest I think with David there you will get a more honest, better view of what the real issues for Telstra are than if it was somebody from Telstra," he said.
The CCC's executive director David Forman also levelled criticism at Telstra in the media statement released yesterday, stating that Telstra had agreed to present at the event months in advance with full knowledge of the conference schedule.
"Clearly, it knows that the independent commercial conference organisers have sold sponsorship and tickets on the basis that Telstra was on the program," he said. "Telstra, let's remember, for three years justified its abusive language about the government, the regulator, the courts and competitors by saying it wanted to create a 'debate'. Yet faced with critics, it first tries to silence them, and then walks away from the opportunity to debate. Telstra is acting the only way it knows how -- by using its market power to try to force people to do what Telstra wants," he said.
But Budde brought the which bucked international trends by dictating the of the NBN but left the regulatory framework up to the industry.
"It's a sad story and it's a pity that we don't have a government which has the guts to come up with a regulatory regime beforehand," Budde said. "We're all paying for the fact that the government is basically telling the industry 'you set the regulatory rules'. No other country in the world has done that and I think it is definitely creating a worse situation in this country with this total lack of government leadership on the regulatory side."
A Terrapinn spokesperson said McKenzie had been replaced by Havyatt.