Following next week’s recommendation from its expert panel, on the $15 billion National Broadband Network bids, the Australian government is likely to ask bidders to form a consortium. The bidders will have a stake in the government’s $4.7 billion fund for building the NBN.

The federal government said that after about two months of contemplation, the panel of experts, led by Patricia Scott - secretary of the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy- is expected to make its recommendations to the Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy.

Once the recommendations have been put forth by the panel, the Australian telecommunications industry would have a clearer idea about the direct association, if any, of the five remaining bidders – Axia, Acacia, Optus-Terria, TransACT, and the Tasmanian Government – in the government’s project.

As of now, it appears that Telstra and its immediate partners – will not be directly involved in the government’s NBN project, that of building a new open access, fibre-based broadband network, reaching nearly 98 percent Australians.

The government dismissed Telstra from the tender process, on account of their failure in fulfilling one of the five obligatory conditions of the RFP – namely, submitting a Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Participation Plan.

However, despite their dismissal, it is quite doubtful that Telstra can be kept out of the NBN process. David Kennedy, a research director at Ovum Research, opines that Telstra somehow or the other will have to be involved in final arrangements. (Additional reporting by Rupinder Kaur)