Cornered! is a blog devoted, most of the time anyway, to telecommunications: local and global issues, technology, people and trends from the perspective of someone who's been reporting, analysing and commenting on the industry since the dark ages (BC - before competition). Sometimes serious, sometimes flippant, sometimes frivolous. Controversial, analytical, informative, amusing, but never boring; a vehicle for examinations of important issues and observations on my encounters and experiences in an industry where polarised views and hyperbole are the norm.
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Cornered! It's hard fighting Telstra
Cornered! It's hard fighting Telstra | It's hard fighting Telstra |
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| by Stuart Corner | |
| Wednesday, 11 April 2007 | |
      
Now a group of 11 of Telstra's competitors, with the notable exception of Optus, have got together to launch a publicity campaign to counter the Telstra onslaught. They have launched their own website to provide a vehicle for this and to oppose Telstra's 'nowwearetalking' website. They are promising to brief key MPs and most importantly they have drawn up a list of a number of Telstra's public utterances which they allege to be misleading and deceptive and, having failed to get any response from Telstra, they have formally lodged a complaint to the ACCC. The result? One national newspaper promptly sought Telstra's response, but not to the specific allegations and in its report of today's developments lead with "New group is end of G9, claims Telstra". The opening paragraph read: "Telstra says the formation of a new group of 11 internet service providers is a sign that the so-called "Group of Nine" (G9) has fallen apart, bringing a swift rebuttal from G9 leader Optus." It quoted Telstra spokesman Rod Bruem saying "They have ditched the G9 concept and walked away from Optus, which proves the point that we made a year ago that consortiums don't work." There followed a rebuttal from Optus. "While Optus is not directly involved in the initiative, we were fully aware of the work that was taking place to prepare for today's announcement. We are confident T4 will stimulate discussion and debate about broadband competition and regulation." And what about the allegations raised with the ACCC? Not a mention. Telstra has managed to hijack the agenda once again. After I reported the allegations earlier today on iTWire I received an email from Bruem. " Stuart, notice you are running the accusations against Telstra without seeking our response. Here it is." The only statement responding specifically to the allegations made to the ACCC read: "Telstra stands by any public statements it has made during the national broadband debate. The truth speaks for itself. These companies are guilty of misrepresentation when they talk about Telstra's network being a "public asset". The asset was sold to investors in T1, T2 and T3. They can't even get this fundamental point right." I don't know where 'public asset' came from, it certainly was not in the letter to the ACCC. And as for truth speaking for itself. Alas never. It lies buried beneath mountains of spin and claims of confidentiality.{moscomment}
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