Telstra threatens to cut investment

Stuart Corner
Saturday, 10 September 2005 17:46

IT Industry - Deals

Telstra has threatened to cut network investment and to impose a hiring freeze unless the government backs of on plans to impose tighter regulation. CEO Sol Trujillo called on fund managers at a lunch organised by Goldman Sachs JB Were in Sydney yesterday to put pressure on the Government to ease regulation, according to a report in the Australian Financial Review. It said that Telstra's proposal for Government to contribute close to half the cost of widespread fibre to the curb deployment had been "roundly criticised in a government report being presented to Cabinet today". The AFR also reported that Trujillo had told the fund managers that Telstra was prepared to take the battle all the way to the courts rather than be forced to invest in uneconomic projects.