Telstra gives up e-mail secrets in WiMax fight

Telstra will disclose thousands of its execs' private e-mails in the ongoing legal scrap between the telco and the Federal Communications Minister.

Telstra is currently fighting the Minister, Helen Coonan, in the Federal Court alleging she refused to give the company access to papers revealing how the winning tender for the country's WiMax network was selected.

Coonan revealed in June that the government had selected OPEL, a joint venture between Optus and Elders, to build the bush WiMax network and that the funding for the project had been increased to AU$1 billion, up from the AU$600 million originally earmarked for the scheme. According to Telstra, only OPEL was made aware of the increase in funding.

As the legal struggle between the two continues, Telstra has this week been forced to hand over a selection of e-mails between CEO Sol Trujillo and the Telstra executive board pertaining to the company's bid.

According to a Telstra spokesperson, the e-mails are not the "thousands and thousands" that have been reported, but some "two folders-worth" after an agreement was struck to narrow the scope of the e-mails that Telstra had to disclose.

When the court case was first announced, Coonan labelled Telstra's court bid as "sour grapes" after it failed to win the network bid.