charges. Mike Quigley said one of the reasons for the flat rate is the OSS and BSS systems was not built to make the process automatic. He continued if NBN Co charged a monthly charge without the systems, it would have been a 'very manually intensive process' and not a 'sensible proposition'. However, RSPs did charge a monthly fee to customers, to cover the cost of the trial. Of the first 4000 residences in Hobart, only 10.9% have actually taken up a service. However, as part of the agreement with Telstra is to decommission the existing copper network as the NBN becomes available, this is not considered as representative of the ultimate NBN adoption by customers. 2011 National Broadband Network Companies Act 2011 (28 March 2011) The Parliament passed the National Broadband Network Companies Act 2011 and a related bill on with amendments by the Greens and independent senators adopted on . The amendments centred around transparency, freedom of information and competition concerns, including the adoption of uniform national wholesale prices for NBN connections. The Government has required support from the Greens to pass NBN legislation through the Parliament. The Greens have voted in favour of NBN legislation, but have also won support for amendments that make NBN Co subject to freedom of information laws, and that make any proposal to privatise the NBN subject to review by the Parliament and by the Productivity Commission. NBN Co Request for tender of April 2010 terminated (1 April 2011) Fourteen vendors submitted a proposal; however, NBN Co suspended the process on , as the prices were 'unacceptably high'. Principal contractor agreement with Silcar (1 June 2011) NBN Co entered into an agreement worth up to with Silcar on 1 June 2011. The agreement covered the construction of the NBN in Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory by Silcar, a company joint-owned by Siemens and Thiess. The agreement also includes the option of a two-year extension with an additional value of . Agreement with Telstra (23 June 2011) NBN Co signed an agreement with Telstra on estimated to be worth post-tax net present value, building upon the signing of a financial heads of agreement a year beforehand. Instead of separating wholesale and retail operations, Telstra agreed to 'disconnect' its Internet customers from the copper and hybrid fibre-coaxial networks in areas where FTTP has been installed, and agreed to lease dark