The “G9″ group of telecommunications companies has renamed itself and is calling for structural separation of Telstra as it prepares its plan for the new national broadband network.

“TERRiA is now the unifying name for our consortium”, said chairman of the group, Michael Egan. “Its mission is to provide an independent and competitive communication network for the nation.” The group now represents eight telcos, after the merge of AAPT and Powertel.

TERRiA is calling for a structural separation between the retail broadband players and the owner of the network that enables them. “The mistake in the early 1990’s was in leaving in place a structure where new telecommunications entrants were left largely at the mercy of the market dominant Telstra”, said Egan.

“It continues to own the core network and has a commercial incentive to frustrate natural competition through control of bottle neck assets. This time we need a genuinely level playing field that allows open competition among all companies using the common monopoly infrastructure.”

The group says it will release its competitive broadband model over the next few weeks, which it says will “protect the consumer” from “vested interests”.