# Telstra playing silly buggers



## bushwoodboy (Oct 5, 2006)

Paul, I couldn't agree with you more. Keep up the good fight  But I guess that's what happens when we have governments that sell us back what we already own through share floats & we accept it :? Cheers Mal.


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## justcrusin (Oct 1, 2006)

Gday Paul,
I got the same letter, didn;t bother to put as much time as you into reading it.  
Notice you signed your wifes name first so the people in the black cadilacs take her away first :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

But seriously telstra should tell someone who cares about there shalders money. There sharholders as a customer all i want is for my phone and net to work ( now that would be nice wouldn't it).

Cheers Dave


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## JT (May 25, 2006)

Telstra's/Milne's letter is utterly outraegous not to mention hugely arrogant. The fact that many local competitors have foreign investment is irrelevant. If you know something about the telco industry you will realise that the letter is a gross distortion of the facts at best and a bare faced lie at worst. The fact that it was written and sent smacks of arse covering and a desire to protect Telstra's position. I have consulted to Telstra and competed against telstra and am reasonably familiar with how they play the game. They want to control the landscape and smother any competition while dictating how technology locally will evolve. Hurts the competition, suits them to the ground and means the punters (us) have considerably less choice.

And if the black cadillacs come I will have my new filleting blade at the ready :shock:

JT


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## PeterJ (Aug 29, 2005)

Having worked in the telco industry for ten years before copping the lemon and sars, That letter is so blatantly a dummy spit if there ever was one.


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## milhouse (Jan 28, 2007)

At the risk of being unpopular, I have to disagree with your comments and think Telstra are being treated unfairly. Why should Telstra spend billions to build a new network when they have to let others use it. Why isnt Optus or SPT or any of these other companies building a network? If you are an Optus or whatever customer at the moment and your have a line fault, who fixes it? Not Optus. 
Lets put it this way:
You bought 5 kayaks, the government says you must give 2 kayaks to someone else so they can use them at a price less than what you paid AND if they have any faults it is still your responsibility to fix them.
Doesnt sound fair to me. 
How many other privately owned companies have to abide by the same conditions? At the end of the day. IF THE GOVT WANTS TO CONTROL IT THEY SHOULDNT HAVE SOLD IT IN THE FIRST PLACE. As a shareholder, I want to make a profit one day on the money I invested.

Thats my rant.


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## sam60 (Aug 30, 2005)

Interesting topic and like any hot topic there is 2 sides to the story. I think the point Milhouse made is valid


> As a shareholder, I want to make a profit one day on the money I invested.


 I think if anyone invests in a company the hope or idea is to make money.


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## PeterJ (Aug 29, 2005)

I'd agree with you if we didn't own it all in the first place. Some of my money paid for that network and still is in the way of taxes.



> Why isn't Optus or SPT or any of these other companies building a network?


Optus have built a separate stand alone Telephony,broadband, PTV network where the Government and "Telstra" have "allowed" them to. Dunno bout SPT. Telstra had put so many hurdles in front of Optus in the past to be able to do anything, including court action.



> If you are an Optus or whatever customer at the moment and your have a line fault, who fixes it? Not Optus.


You are exactly right. 
Optus do not repair line faults on telstra owned services. Optus and others "lease" lines from Telstra , this makes telstra responsible for the upkeep of those lines exactly the same way any leased item is looked after. 
What you find is that Telstra have let the system go into disrepair because of cutting thousands of jobs , things keep playing up.
Optus do service their own networks

I have no shares in Telstra and never will, i have no shares in Optus and never will.
But at the expense of not looking after the public for the sake of profit is a disgrace. Fair enough you want a return but really the only ones that benefit is the directors that leave with tens of millions after cutting things to the bone. 
Try telling the remote country communities that have lost their pay phones or can't even get a decent service about profit verses service.

and thats "my"rant 
:shock:


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## JT (May 25, 2006)

The nature of the telco environment FORCES Telstra's competitors to use the Telstra network or parts of it as Telstra owns the copper that represents the final mile so to speak. That part of the network was paid for by the public and was established in order to provide a basic service to that public.

Telstra is not the only Telco to build a network. There are more networks and dark fibre (unused fibre) around in Australia at the moment to come close to being filled to capacity, especially on the east coast. Infact many 2nd tier telcos have dropped obscene amounts of money building networks that are not being used much at all. Take Powertel as an example.

Certainly no argument on companies making a profit.

JT


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## rawprawn (Aug 31, 2005)

DonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t agree with what you have said Occy. I have been closer than most to Telstra and the numbers to know who is and isnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t getting a fair deal in this mess.

DonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t be fooled into thinking the politics and gaming is all one sided. Ziggy didnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t take as aggressive a stand as most of us at Telstra would have liked him to. We felt like we where being bent over day after day with no real counter punch. Whilst I donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t agree with a lot of what Sol is doing, I do agree with his hardball stance on this issue.

The competition has a lot of money as is doing a lot of lobbying and spinning of itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s own. If you donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t believe that the competition is pressuring to get access to TelstraÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s assets at a price lower than what it costs Telstra then there is not much I can do or say to convince you. Unless you have worked on the numbers you only will only ever have spin to go by.


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

----

QlpoOTFBWSZTWe7a6RoAAC7fgAASQOWAEAAgFIA/59/gMAEUyg1TxEaYmp4IagxPU0ITT1TTEaDQDTQAJUxNGqejUyTJvRIxGFEdJocWxmuRINwFpz8AMlM2kthOQnxbVOh7noHCi+svp8QSNtYZBniQIlfmxx5f6FRcaDcW2TM90bAx1YRRTpXrQQyXEw6/cmAokeyLIsJtf2EwmCcsGMbv9HJJFIE/bmteGbTTiobMWhOrLL1hZbely0OnjgC8qNuimOa5++7HRbC7QKLidkMWUVHOtYuUBnDE5IPAVnYTsnHlozD8V6yKruhoo1IGwBCpCdIRocxfYtXnUO+Wo1UlmkVhdEuXehuOa0KkWcFRLNIaU9CC5kUQI0hWJ43+6PPzrxR5fBdyRThQkO7a6Ro=


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## YakAtak (Mar 13, 2006)

Go the node, quality service, good pricing too, why can't there be more ISPs like them?!


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## JT (May 25, 2006)

rawprawn said:


> DonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t agree with what you have said Occy. I have been closer than most to Telstra and the numbers to know who is and isnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t getting a fair deal in this mess.
> 
> DonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t be fooled into thinking the politics and gaming is all one sided. Ziggy didnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t take as aggressive a stand as most of us at Telstra would have liked him to. We felt like we where being bent over day after day with no real counter punch. Whilst I donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t agree with a lot of what Sol is doing, I do agree with his hardball stance on this issue.
> 
> The competition has a lot of money as is doing a lot of lobbying and spinning of itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s own. If you donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t believe that the competition is pressuring to get access to TelstraÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s assets at a price lower than what it costs Telstra then there is not much I can do or say to convince you. Unless you have worked on the numbers you only will only ever have spin to go by.


Interesting perspective Greg. 2 sides to every story.

John


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Declarations of Interest:

1. Telstra shareholder
2. Employee of company that has FTTN contract with Telstra (ie Fibre broadband)
3. Not a subscriber to any Telstra service (part of my tough love programme for the company  )

I heartily disagreed with the privatisation of Telstra, but having been done, the management has no choice but to maximise their returns. Telstra has rolled out the fastest and most advanced mobile network to 98% of the population without government subsidy.

No other company is willing to roll out high speed broadband to anything other than the big cities without government subsidy. Telstra is prepared to do it without subsidy provided it doesn't have to subsidise anyone else. Fair call in my books


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## lazydays (Aug 30, 2005)

Occy said...
_Got an automatic reply saying they would respond within a day. Yeh as if. Twisted Evil_

Occy did receive a reply.

I did one better and complained about their email saying I'm happy with my speeds but would prefer a cheaper service and got offered a free one months trial of DVD's


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## onemorecast (Apr 17, 2006)

occy said:


> _we feel the delivery of high-speed broadband for Australians is vital to Australia's future growth and prosperity_.


 :lol: :lol: :lol:

This is the bit of telpstras email that I find most pathetic. ie pretending that this is important for _"Australians prosperity_", when in fact this is simply about the growth and prosperity of Telstra.

As a (modest) shareholder, I also got this email and this wording insulted my intelligence. I would have been more impressed by an honest statement such as "as a shareholder you will not make as much money on your holdings if we let the government have it's way with this" But I suppose this is not politically palatable as many people may like to believe that Telstra is a service and not a simply a business. :roll:


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## rawprawn (Aug 31, 2005)

occy said:


> onemorecast said:
> 
> 
> > many people may like to believe that Telstra is a service and not a simply a business. :roll:
> ...


Yes I find him and his mates obnoxious. And I agree some of the recent marketing on this issue has been brash and harsh (i.e. USA style), but we sat back whilst Ziggy was in the chair and did virtually no marketing on it and all. I think they are now playing catch up as ugly as it is.

As an employee IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m used to people Telstra bashing. And if youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re saying that my colleagues and I are lying to the ACCC, then that is disappointing but understandable. ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s understandable because all of the hype and lobbying the competition has done on this issue.

Believe it or not apart from the recent injection from the USA most of us that work at Telstra are hard working Australians.100s of employees work on these figures. You may even have some neighbours who worked on some aspects of the info submitted to the ACCC. We do not lie or falsify figures to do so would go against our very strict company values and the values most of us share as Australians.

I agree they never should have sold it. But they did. Did we get a fair return for all our Tax dollars spent? Well the market sets the price and if the current share price is anything to go buy we probably got more than what it was worth.

We canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t change that fact that it is sold, itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s done and now and Telstra has to survive. It has an obligation to its new owners (i.e. your fellow Australian mum and dads) to make a return many are still yet to see. It should be able to do this on a level playing field and not have to pass on its investments at below cost to foreign companies.

If you donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t believe that Telstra and its employees are telling the truth then there is not much I can do about it. But I for one am not at all comfortable seeing the assets go towards increasing foreign companies coffers.

I still love you Occy but I guess we will just have to agree to disagree on this one. This and the fact that you should never have worn that sequin G-string whist fishing at Glenbawn last year. I still have trouble with my eyes after the morning sun hit your bedazzled man pouch :shock:


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## milhouse (Jan 28, 2007)

occy said:


> No worries with your position there at all Greg, as you probably do know more than most. I don't think it's the Telstra employees who are tinkering with the facts here, but* for some reason I get this feeling that Sol and his Amigo's might have a little difficulty with the truth. *


I agree with your comment Occy, when you look into the contracts Sol organises over here, it not surprising that most of them are with american companies directed or managed by family members or old collegues of his........
Having said that, I do like the way he sticks it to the aust govt and doesnt put up with their crap. I would like to Aussies support an Aussie company rather that an overseas owned one, even though the top dogs are imports, the "real workers" are aussies who are just trying to earn a dollar and keep their jobs. If telstra succeeded in their quest to build the FTTN network, I would hope the aussies would support them and in return I would expect Telstra to provide a reasonably priced product. I remember diallup days and hope that in the next 10 years, todays speeds will feel like diallup compared to what we will have.


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