Kordia Vs. Telstraclear High Court Decision Made

Kordia Vs. Telstraclear High Court Decision Made Public

Kordia is pleased that the judgment on a three year dispute with TelstraClear has finally been made public.

Kordia initiated arbitration in 2007 to clarify its upgrade rights with TelstraClear. An award was issued by Alan Galbraith QC in June of this year. Despite the contract stating that arbitration was “final and binding”, TelstraClear subsequently sought permission from the High Court to appeal the decision. Permission to appeal was denied by the Court.

Kordia CEO Geoff Hunt says that TelstraClear had been disputing whether or not Kordia had rights to perform a unilateral upgrade on the jointly-built and -owned network. The upgrade would be on the basis that it caused no detriment to TelstraClear’s use of the joint network, and would require only reasonable co-operation from TelstraClear at Kordia’s cost.

“The issue was around whether or not we could unilaterally upgrade to maximise our share of the capacity in the fibre, or whether TelstraClear was able to obstruct this.

“An upgrade will allow Kordia to get a similar cost base for capacity as TelstraClear, and enable us to compete effectively with them as well as others in the market, and provide a better return on our assets for the Shareholder.

“Justice Brewer has found in our favour, so we will now be looking to maximize our share of the capacity in the joint fibre network for our wholesale business.”

Hunt says that Kordia is looking forward to putting the litigation behind it, and getting on with the upgrade.

ENDS

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