Telstra has, in part, responded to Fairfax CEO David Kirk’s comments yesterday.
“If David Kirk thinks we have a broadband drought because there is too little competition, he has played too much football without a helmet,” he said.
They’ve also threatened a class action lawsuit if the government forces Telstra to allow access to a new high-speed network by competitors .
Heaven forbid that a monopoly created in part by Australian tax-payer’s money be leveraged to help benefit those Australians!
2 comments ↓
The network is not a monopoly, and while Australian Government money created the network, that network was bought lock, stock and barrel by Telstra’s shareholders.
To say that the government should determine how Telstra’s network should be operated is as absurd as saying that Mitsubishi’s board should determine where I drive my Magna.
Telstra’s prices and investments are not determined by Telstra, they are determined by the ACCC. At this point, Telstra quite rightly won’t invest because the ACCC will effectively expropriate, handing it to Telstra’s competition.
(By way of disclosure, I am a Telstra employee. The views I expressed are my own, they are not Telstra’s views, nor should they be taken as such)
Hi Chris, thanks for taking the time to comment.
The ownership of Telstra’s network has nothing to do with whether or not it is a monopoly. You’d be hard pressed to find an ADSL connection in Australia that does not pass through Telstra hardware at some point, and as such Telstra has an extraordinary amount of influence over Australian broadband.
Yes, the network was sold to private investors. However, the sale was not without strings attached - part of which is to be subject to regulation.
Telstra would not be in the dominant position it is without the money of the Australian taxpayers since Telecom’s inception in the 70’s. The regulation is in place to ensure that the investment of that money continues to benefit you and me as Australians, rather than the pockets of Telstra’s shareholders.
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