Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

I distinctly heard Senator Wortley accuse the government of subsidising Telstra’s 3G network. The only subsidy that I can recall that we have provided in relation to 3G has been in fact the CDMA towers that have been used in the deployment of the earlier technology. I cannot recall the figure; I think it is something like $150 million that Telstra has received as part of the CDMA rollout, but we certainly have not subsidised the 3G rollout and we have certainly not subsidised any commercial rollout under the OPEL network. The only deployment of the government funding has been to underserved areas.