Senator Coonan said Telstra, like its rivals, would always come under the microscope of the Australian Competition and Communications Commission (ACCC).

"I am sympathetic to Telstra's desire to minimize the risk inherent in major new investments; however, the logic of exempting such networks completely from the access regime is not compelling," she said.

Federal opposition communications spokesman Stephen Conroy said the industry had reached a stand-off.

"At the moment, Australia's telecommunications regulatory regime is not delivering adequate regulatory certainty for large scale infrastructure investments," he said.

Coonan also released the final guidelines for the A$50 million, three-year Metropolitan Broadband Connect program under the Connect Australia package.