Telstra and TPG Telecom have addressed the critics of their planned network sharing arrangement. This came after Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin stated that this plan risked the establishment of “a regional monopoly reminiscent of the old Telecom.”

According to a Telstra spokesperson, the criticism of the deal came “from competitors who either cannot think beyond the infrastructure sharing models of the past or who were not bold enough to get there first.”

The spokesperson also argued that “It improves the size and quality of TPG’s mobile coverage. It improves the capacity and quality of Telstra’s mobile coverage. And most importantly it increases the choice of provider and quality of service for regional Australians."

“It is a practical engineering and commercial response to the realities of building infrastructure and providing services in regional Australia, and the regulatory settings that overlay this. While new to the Australian market, active network sharing is common in Europe and North America.”

The spokesperson also said that the two telcos “are taking advantage of technological change which has opened new possibilities for sharing.”

“This is nothing like the old days,” said TPG’s general manager, external affairs, James Rickards. “For the first time, the incumbent provider has decided to give up a key network advantage. This infrastructure sharing arrangement is not without commercial risk to Telstra. TPG will have the ability to compete for and win a substantially increased share of customers in regional Australia from both Telstra and Optus.”

However, Bayer Rosmarin and other critics highlighted the amount of spectrum that Telstra will be able to access as part of the deal. To address this, Rickards argued that Optus “will have more low-band and mid-band spectrum per subscriber in regional Australia than Telstra and TPG after they pool their spectrum.”

“Importantly, the TPG spectrum must be used by Telstra in the shared regional network for the beneβit of both TPG and Telstra customers,” he added.

Rickards further added that “It is deliberately twisting the facts to suit its own commercial agenda at the expense of TPG customers who should be allowed to have access to the superior regional mobile coverage enjoyed by Optus and Telstra customers.”

According to Symbio CEO Rene Sugo, smaller operators had sought similar deals in the past but had been relegated to being “thin” MVNOs.

Sugo argued that “The Telstra-TPG deal is ostensibly a thick MVNO arrangement between two Tier 1 players. Something that the challengers were told was not possible for many, many years. It was always too hard, involved long, drawn-out, resource intensive-discussions, stumbling on false hurdles, one after the other... There was rarely a straightforward ‘no’. But years and years later, there was never a ‘yes’ either. I think the word for these tactics is stonewalling.”