The Commonwealth Government of Australia has excluded Telstra from the National Broadband Network (NBN) request for proposals process.

Based on a technicality: the failure to provide a plan to engage small to medium enterprises in Australia to help carry out the work, the Government has excluded Telstra from the process.

This is the next step in ongoing battles between the Government and Telstra senior execs who are well versed in playing hardball.

itsNbits expects this to be a short term issue designed to try to pull Telstra into line. Its unlikely a decent NBN can be made without Telstra playing a key role due to the size and complexity of the work required.