Telstra takes a swipe at competitors

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 04 October 2005 17:53

IT Policy - Regulation

Telstra released its own service results for the June quarter, and used the opportunity to take another swipe at 'freeloading' competitors reselling its services below cost rather than investing in their own network infrastructure.

Telstra's head of network services, Michael Lawrey, said "...more needs to be done across the industry to protect the long-term sustainability of the network. This is a growing problem where Telstra competitors continue to be encouraged to simply resell Telstra's network rather than contribute in any real sense to maintenance or investment in new services such as broadband.

"Australia's regulatory regime forces Telstra to provide basic telephony services to all customers in all geographic locations but encourages our competitors to cherry pick the most profitable and easily serviced markets, without putting a fair share back into the network from which they draw their profits. Telstra wants to continue to provide improved service to all customers but competitors' contribution to network investment is below today's cost and Telstra is left to carry the can. This simply cannot go on indefinitely.