"The creation of the NBN 10 years ago has had a seminal effect on our industry and Australia,"Mr Mullen said.
"It is always easier to comment with the benefit of hindsight,but it is my view that over the last 10 years private sector competition between strong players such as Telstra,Optus,TPG and others was always going to build 100 Mbps broadband access and speed to the majority of the population of Australia,in an ongoing competitive landscape and at no cost whatsoever to the taxpayer,"he said.
Mr Mullen said the government could then have decided how much in subsidy they could provide to the industry to extend this coverage to regional and rural areas where the private sector economics didn't stack up.
"This would have been at a fraction of the cost of today's NBN,"he said.
Optus vice-president of regulatory affairs Andrew Sheridan hit back at Mr Mullen's comments,saying it was an"attempt to rewrite the history behind the creation of the NBN".
"If Telstra had its way,Australians would be stuck with an unregulated,slow broadband offering free from any competitive tension,"Mr Sheridan said.