The new collaborative and conciliatory Telstra is a myth, says Internode

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 08 October 2009 13:27

IT Industry - Strategy

Telstra's behaviour towards the government under its new CEO David Thodey and absent the bellicose Phil Burgess has been widely seen as more conciliatory and collaborative, but when it comes down the nitty gritty of other telcos wanting access to Telstra services and facilities, nothing has changed, claims Internode.

In his company's submission to the enquiry into proposed legislation that would require a structural spit of Telstra, or divestment of assets - The Senate Standing Committee on Environment, Communications and the Arts, enquiry into the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2009 - Internode's carrier relations manager, John Lindsay, says: "While the public face of Telstra appears to be more cooperative with Government and access seekers, the reality is different. We are aware of several access disputes which are likely to be notified in the next few weeks which demonstrate that there remains a regulatory problem that needs to be fixed and that Telstra is still prepared to separately fight each and every access seeker all the way to the Federal Court."

Lindsay also hit out at suggestions that separation of Telstra's retail and wholesale businesses would require expensive and highly disruptive changes to Telstra's IT systems, saying there had been "numerous occasions on which Telstra have altered IT systems used by access seekers to order, alter and be billed for services. On each occasion little notice has been provided and no compensation paid for the costs incurred in altering systems.

"Any argument that reform would be delayed for years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars due to massive changes to Telstra IT systems is at best disingenuous and at worst indication that they use IT system changes as a commercial weapon against their own customers. Much of the necessary equivalence comes down to fair and equal treatment which is less technical and more cultural."