Forget the review says Telstra; we can handle rural comms

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 15 October 2008 12:38

Opinion and Analysis

Telstra has slammed the Regional Telecommunications Independent Review committee's 385 page report and its 50 recommendations based on more than 20 public hearings, several stakeholder briefings and over 220 submissions, saying that the future of rural telecommunications is safe in Telstra's hands, unfettered by regulation and government intervention.

Geoff Booth, group managing director, Telstra Country Wide, branded the report - which was tabled in parliament today - and its recommendations "a stop sign to telecommunications investment in regional Australia... [which makes] recommendations that will do nothing but create massive uncertainty for investment in regional Australia."

The speed of Telstra's response (within hours of the report being tabled in Parliament) and the fact that it makes no attempt at any detailed commentary on the merits of almost 50 specific recommendations seems to show just how determined Telstra is to oppose any moves by government that might interfere with its ability to exert its considerable market power, which is much greater in rural Australia than in metro areas.

The report notes that: "The structure of the telecommunications industry, including the integrated nature of Telstra, may be limiting the benefits of competition in regional areas."

According to Booth, "The recommendations that the report makes will only increase the divide between regional and city telecommunications... [They] are tired, old-world thinking that has done little to address the challenges of the digital and IP world."

And he claimed that "Telstra is the only company that has made material investments in regional Australia. Through this investment and the subsequent improvements that have occurred, there has been tremendous progress in telecommunications in regional, rural and remote parts of Australia...

"The report clearly forgets the benefits that Telstra's investment in the Next G network has provided to regional Australia, with the Australia's largest and most advanced national 3GSM network available to 99 percent of the Australian population. The Committee's recommendations would discourage that investment being made today."

However Booth has forgotten, as the report notes, the considerable subsidy provided by the Federal Government to provide mobile coverage in rural Australia.
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