NBNCo board, chair working under market rates: Conroy

The Federal Governemnt is expected to announced the full management team of the National Broadband Network Company (NBNCo) shortly, according to Communications minister Stephen Conroy.

“We're looking at announcing the chair and hopefully the full board very, very shortly, we are just going through a range of discussions at the moment just finalising that and we've got a very, very strong caliber of candidates,” he told ABC's <i>Inside Business</i> program yesterday.

Demand for positions with the NBNCo had been high, with many candidates willing to take a significant pay cut to be a part of the start-up, Conroy said.

“It's been quite gratifying to see that the people who have put their names forward have all been willing to work at well below what you would deem normal market rates in the Telco sector but they believe in the project,” he said.

A CEO for the NBN is also expected to be announced shortly, jointly selected by the Federal Government and the newly created board.

Thus far the NBNCo had been registered, and five public servants had been appointed as directors to oversee the basic establishment processes of the company, Conroy said.

The communications minister also acknowledged that it would make more sense for NBN and Telstra's network to be together rather than competing with each other.

“I've always said that if Telstra took the decision that it was a win for their shareholders then ultimately it would mean we would be able to build the network faster and it probably would be able to be cheaper because obviously if these assets come in we don't need to duplicate them,” he said. “So common sense would say that a combination would be a great outcome.”