Telstra to focus on customers? Now that's news!

Stuart Corner
Monday, 28 June 2010 10:17

Opinion and Analysis

There's a very old adage in journalism: 'Dog bites man' is not news; 'Man bites dog' is news. There's been a few examples of these non-headlines in recent days, along with one about Telstra that really should fall into this category but doesn't.

The first was along the lines of 'Optus will bid for digital dividend spectrum'. Well of course it will. Optus deciding it was not interested in this additional spectrum to meet the burgeoning demand for mobile broadband, now that would have been news.

The second was from across The Ditch, under the rather misleading headline "TelstraClear's cable networks orphaned by NBN move." The story explained that TelstraClear's investment in cable networks in Wellington and Christchurch had not been undermined by parent Telstra's decision to 'decommission' its cable networks in Australia as part of its $11 billion deal with the Australian Government.

Since that was a deal with the Australian Government struck with the aid of a very big stick being waved over Telstra by the Government, one would hardly expect it to apply in New Zealand. Now, if Australian Government policy were to apply in New Zealand that would be news.

The third such headline was from The Age this morning: "Telstra to switch focus to customers," and was based on the interview with Telstra CEO, David Thodey broadcast on ABC TV's Inside Business programme the previous day.

One would think that Telstra had been focussing on customers for years, so this should definitely be a non-news item. And indeed that mantra of customer focus has been trotted out, repeatedly, by every CEO, since deregulation: Frank Blount, Ziggy Switkowski, Sol Trujillo and now David Thodey.

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