Telstra says it has been excluded from the bidding process for the construction of a national broadband network by the Federal Government for "trivial" reasons.

Telstra said reason given for its exclusion was that it did not include a plan on how to involve small and medium enterprises in the building of the network in its from the "request for proposal" lodged on November 26.

"The decision to exclude us from the RFP is the Commonwealth's decision to make," chairman Donald McGauchie said.

"But Telstra is the only company to have submitted a proposal with a real financial commitment - of $5 billion.

"And Telstra is the only company with the existing network, technical know-how, world-leading vendor, skilled workforce, established wholesale systems and proven track record of building world-class networks."