rs essentially at operating cost. The rationale was that Telstra's network had been developed through national funding by the taxpayers and therefore belonged to all Australians. The value of this copper network increased significantly at the turn of the century when Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) technology was introduced. ADSL sys- tems made it possible for subscribers to connect to the internet from their homes/offices at several megabits per second speeds using the old telephone lines. Many telephone operators, including Optus, started offering ADSL services using this Telstra-owned network. The popularity of these services, as well as the need to upgrade and augment the network, caused friction between Telstra and other service providers. Telstra argued that any new copper and fibre cable installation was its own, and therefore it was not subject to the deregulations terms. Therefore it could charge access fees at market rates. The government disagreed, and a stalemate ensued. After a number of attempts to find a private sector solution for the roll out of a fast broadband network, the government decided that a new nationally owned entity was the way forward, and the NBN policy was announced. A new infrastructure monopoly 'NBN Co' was created by this policy, Technology, Business and Policy funded by public and private equity. It is intended that NBN Co will be privatised when the national network roll out is completed [23]. The NBN is an Australian government policy to build a broadband telecommunication infrastructure to connect all premises to the internet at very fast transmission rates announced in July 2009. The infrastructure is to be owned by NBN Co, a 100% Australian government-owned Company. NBN roll-out calls for connecting 93% of Australian prem- ises (homes, businesses, schools, etc.) by optical fibre cables to a national grid, with expected transmission rates of 1 gigabit/s (Gbps) or more. The remaining 7% are connected by wireless broadband and broadband satellite technologies with a