Telstra pleads for end to separation gossip

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nowwearetalking mick -- 11/06/08

Full article available here http://www.nowwearetalking.com.au/news/mcgauchie-stop-separation-speculation

also more info on structural separation facts
http://www.nowwearetalking.com.au/news/separation-the-facts

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nowwearetalking Anonymous -- 11/06/08 (in reply to #320103834)

Cough "Telstra propaganda" cough

I don’t wanna be stuck with low data limits, 3gig is NOT enough for everyone... :)

I don't see pro telstra peeps addressing the rather limiting data limits which Telstra would impose on us all.

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Lift and Separate George Bray -- 11/06/08

These are the desperate words of the monopolist trying to retain their market position. Can you blame them? There are a lot of highly paid execs at Telstra who are goaled on keeping the company extracting the maximum price for telco services from the AU public.

It's a bonus that they can do this in so many markets, at wholesale and retail level. If there was a prize for "Top Rapacious Monopolist", Telstra would be in its thirtieth winning year.

Telstra, can you think of any other way that Australians can get better competition and lower prices without structural separation? No, you can't. Your only strategy is to debunk a plan that will reduce your market dominance. Good luck with that.

The whole Australian telco industry is now screaming at the govt to make this hard decision now, as part of the NBN restructure. For decades we've been sick of the market practices and rapacious intent from Telstra. It's no surprise that everyone is telling Conroy this is the last chance to make telco services in Australia benefit Australia, rather than just Telstra and its shareholders.

Here's a situation to study. Take a look at the upcoming rollout of the Apple iPhone, and how the different carriers in AU approach the pricing of 3G data services. As in the past decades, Telstra will start their pricing at an unrealistic premium - fantastically overpriced, and marketed with the full gloss that monopolist advertising can buy.

But they will have competitors who may take the initiative to design "all-you-can-eat" plans showing the reality that IP bandwidth services aren't really that rare, special or scarce and that delivering a robust, everyman service is a greater benefit to the customers than the benefit that Telstra executives and shareholders might gain.

Let's see how this plays out. I'm betting even with other carriers selling the iPhone, Telstra will still use their market power to maximise the dollars extracted from AU phone users. And the other carriers will be lapping up their opportunity to charge just a bit less than Telstra, and the result is the whole AU market for data services will be overpriced.

Australians will suffer by not building and participating in high-bandwidth mobile services, while the rest of the world makes progress.

Need a history lesson for the Telstra website? I don't see them recounting the rollout of ISDN service pricing, HFC rollout tactics, pay TV monopoloisation.

I'm confident the upcoming industry restructure around the NBN is seen as an opportunity to fix this mess, but I'm not sure anyone has the guts to put Telstra in it's place.

All this bluster, with scary legal action against the regulator and threats that make the govt squirm. It will take some intestinal fortitude to stand up to these monopolist tactics, but it really must be done now for the future of telecoms in this country. We can't allow this above-market bandwidth taxation to limit the Australia's growth any more.

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Advance Australia.Fairly. Sydney Lawrence -- 13/06/08 (in reply to #320103876)

George Bray your heartbreaking sob session will not be accepted by any knowledgable person. Competitive business is tough and only the best survive. Of course Telstra opponents wish for a break-up of Telstra as it would greatly advantage them.
When will they realise that competition means investing and competiting not simply demanding the Government breaks up a stronger opponent to assist those weaker.
Bottlenecks need to be addressed certainly but the devious Telstra opposers want Telstra to sacrifice itself and deliver business and profits to them.
Australia cannot support hundreds of parasitic ISP's in fact if Senator Conroy concentrated on cutting the number to three or four all could be profitable.
And a big win for the Australian taxpayer would result as all Government subsidies could be terminated.

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