Comments on: Telstra holds back broadband speeds. Again.

By: Richard McGuire

Richard McGuire — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Please spare us your indignation. Telstra is doing what any other listed private company would, that is put the interests of their shareholders first. Spare a thought for all the mum and dad shareholders out there. The current government inherited this dog’s breakfast from the previous one. The great Telstra privatisation experiment is a work in progress. Watch this space.

By: Richard McGuire

Richard McGuire — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

That was no excuse Stillhere, that’s just the way things are…… There is nothing unusual about Field Marshall Trujillo when compared with other CEO’s of large companies…… Sometime down the track the debate may turn to the merits or otherwise of the previous governments sale of Telstra.

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I can confirm in my part of country Victoria - between Wangaratta and Beechworth (and beyond) there is at least one either unused or under utilised optic fibre cable in place.

When I asked if I could be connected to it, I was told there are no optic fibre cables in the area - .even though a few months earlier I assisted Telstra staff as they had to repair my water pipe repair when it was cut while the optic fibre cable was laid in front of our property

By: David Husband

David Husband — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

This is really no great surprise. A few years ago I asked (optimistically) forTelstra to connect the fibre optic which runs outside my property to my house. Or via the local exchange 300 metres away. I was prepared to pay all costs involved. They declined. The Minister said it is a commercial decision. I say it is corporate bloody-mindedness, when they have the monopoly in my rural area. I hurl my metaphorical shoes at Telstra, and may they rot in corporate hell.

By: Stilgherrian

Stilgherrian — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I’m not sure that debating the merits or otherwise of the previous government’s sale of Telstra are particularly useful, except for historians and players of what-if games. The real interest is in understanding where we are NOW and pondering the possibilities for the future.

By: Bohemian

Bohemian — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

See what happens when corporations have monopoly control! They act like totalitarian regimes which is how they are run i.e. top down. The people are left powerless to respond with one exception and that is we can stop buying or using their products immediately. Money is what drives them and lack of it is the only thing that brings them to heel. Good old market forces.

Now in the case of state control over resources, it simply mandates that you use its services and that is probably worse; although until such time as it wrests power forcefully from the people, we can still vote them the rascals out. But I am not sure how long we have left.

Telstra is an example of what a monopolistic corporation can do..imagine what would happen if we had monopolies in health care and education whereby government had ceded control of parts of those systems to some "lucky" corporate tenderer! Scared yet?

By: Stilgherrian

Stilgherrian — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

“Stilwhat”? Um, Stilgherrian IS my real name. Legal, like on my passport, Medicare card and all those nasty letters from my bank manager. Has been since 1981. Why the arrangement of alphabetic characters disturbs you?

Do you have a comment or question about the content of the article?

By: Graeme

Graeme — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Doesn’t this raise issues with Telstra not providing information to non-exec shareholders necessary to enable them to make informed decisions on holding or selling shares? Where and when does ASIC come in?

By: Colin Campbell

Colin Campbell — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

If ever there was a case of renationalising of a national resource and then splitting it up so we can have some real competition in this country, then it is this kind of crap. What arrogance. Where are the ACCC in this kind of anti competitive environment?

By: Richard McGuire

Richard McGuire — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

You may not be sure Stilgherrian but I’d wager it will become a debating point sooner rather than later.

By: Richard McGuire

Richard McGuire — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

”the government buy back shares in Telstra ?” Well they are forking out 4.7 billion dollars for high speed broadband. This money may not be going to Telstra, but it certainly means the government is back in the game.

By: Stilgherrian

Stilgherrian — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

@Stillhere: No problem, many people assume my name is a handle/alias/whatever, but it’s all too real. Many call me “Stil” for sort, too. Feel free.

@Richard McGuire: Even though I think a debate about privatisation is pointless, it will almost certainly kick off. There’s too many ways for politicians to attempt some point-scoring. But what, realistically, could be done now? The government buy back the shares? Using what for money?

By: Stilgherrian

Stilgherrian — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

@Alex: Interestingly enough, this afternoon on Twitter I floated the idea that this article could actually help Telstra’s share price. Instead of characterising the rejection of their NBN bid as stupid, it frames it as a clever move and part of a coherent overall strategy to beat their competition. TLS shares should therefore go up, and Uncle Sol owes me a big wet kiss. Two, if I’m lucky.

By: Stillhere

Stillhere — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Just another classic example of unbridled capitalism at work. I love the lame excuse of Richard McGuire’s that it is all in the interests of “Mum and Dad” shareholders….PLEASE! This is all about a privileged few getting their rocks off through power, and all the rewards that are reaped from being in that position. Field Marshall Trujillo might as well be deploying missiles at the enemy when they get to close. How despairing it all is.

By: Lois Frederick

Lois Frederick — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

i’m a small investor in Telstra and the shareprice could go to zero as far as i’m concerned. i’d love to see the govt. break Telstra into small pieces and enforce a level playing ground. Sol should follow his loudmouthed fat little friend home asap.

By: Matt Povey

Matt Povey — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Couldn't agree more - there are reasons that the phrase 'natural monopoly' came about. Since I first heard about the NBN I have wondered exactly what the point of it is. It doesn't appear to introduce meaningful competition and nor does it seem to really provide Australia with any great technological advantage over other countries.

The essential problem it seems is that noone can decide whether they want a strong 'national champion' in the form of Telstra, able to support 'strategic infrastructure' and sure to apply 'national interest' principles to investment or a competitive telecoms environment which drive costs down and introduces innovative services. The second option probably requires Telstra to be broken up and likely as not for foreign companies to be allowed to take parts of it over.

The other point to make here relates to the way that Telstra allocates resources. Currently, they do it to maximise profit and ensure their continued market dominance in the future. I somehow doubt that it would be preferable for government to make those decisions instead. I don't know what things were like here but the nationalised BT was not a great organisation to deal with.

By: Cathy

Cathy — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

We’re into a debate about coloured cables and optical fibres when this ridiculous company cant connect with its customers. Telstra may well be in the communications business but there’s not a shred of evidence its into information exchange. Talking, hearing, understanding, speaking, offering service, benefits and facilitating use of its product is well beyond this communications giant totally hamstrung on its mission. Its call centres are staffed either by those with scant language skills who refer you to teams and teams of …credit, service, help, accounts, technical …teams none of whom are capable of making a decision without referring you to a team leader! The communications ombudsman is similarly stuffed on how to bring this company to the negotiation table on basic customer rights. Forget coloured cables, fibres and secret weapons. All Telstra needs is dismantling and someone to flick Sol Trujillo and his daydream. He’s landed with public infrastructure - an essential service whether he likes it or not.

By: Richard McGuire

Richard McGuire — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Lets put markets and competition aside for one moment………….. Telstra like many government utilities became a natural monopoly……………….. You can either push for these utililities to be run as efficientlty and be as accountable as possible…………….. Or attempt to superimpose the principles of the open market on them……………. In which case, you will find the private sector has neither the will or capacity to duplicate their infrastructure………Governments can always privatise them…….. In which case more often than not your’e left with a privately owned monopoply.

By: Richard McGuire

Richard McGuire — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Dark coloured fibre - light coloured fibre - A privatised Telstra owns that cable - it remains to be seen if it also controls that cable. Past experience has shown - re pay tv - when you try to duplicate a network - you end up with multiple communications cables hanging off power poles.

By: Stilhere

Stilhere — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Profuse apologies; I had, without any research, been assuming it was a handle.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

It would seem that Telstra is trying to prove to the government that it doesn’t need to deal with them. They’ll simply crush competitors by utilising it’s almost monopoly on infrastructure. However, Sol’s empire games may be unnecessarily impacting the share price. By missing out on landmark market matters like government tenders, it sends the wrong kind of signals to the market.

By: Stilwhat

Stilwhat — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Can you please get someone with a real name to write the technology articles?

By: Jan Laws

Jan Laws — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

As a product of the seventies I well remember the nation enjoyed infrastructure, goods and services that were there and worked with choices when they didnt. Right now Australia looks like one huge graveyard of dysfunctional telecommunications, banking, transport, health, child and aged products with its populace wandering (EMO Nelson here) the streets in third world-manufactured rags. When Beiijing was pilloried for its net censorship and documentaries depicted life for the oppressed masses it looked to me like a window on Australia’s future. The no choice, strung up monopolised nation with a massive wealth divide. Telstra is a symptom.