(, , ) is an
Australia n
Telecommunications company under joint
Public /
Private Ownership , holding a dominant position in landline
Telephone services, large share of
Mobile Phone services, domestic consumer (including
Dial-up Access and "
Broadband "
Cable Modem ,
Satellite and
ADSL services under the
BigPond and
Hypermax brands) and business data services, and
Cable Television . Despite some setbacks, Telstra remains a profitable telecommunications company. The Australian Federal Government has recently announced it expects to sell its remaining share in 2006. A Senate vote passed on the night of September 14, 2005 has allowed this to occur.
Telecommunications services were originally controlled by the (government-owned) Postmaster General's Department (PMG). On
July 1 ,
1975 , separate commissions were established by statute to replace the PMG. Responsibility for postal services was transferred to the
Australian Postal Commission (
Australia Post ). The
Australian Telecommunications Commission (ATC), trading as , ran domestic telecommunication services.
In 1989 the ATC was reconstituted as the
Australian Telecommunications Corporation .
In 1992 the
Overseas Telecommunications Commission , a separate government body established in 1946, was merged with the Australian Telecommunications Corporation into the short-lived
Australian And Overseas Telecommunications Corporation (AOTC) which continued trading under the established identities of Telecom and OTC.
The AOTC was renamed to Telstra Corporation Limited in 1993. It has since been partially privatised but as of mid-2005 remains majority government-owned. A depressed share price is expected to delay the government selling its remaining 51.8% of the company for some time. Telstra began to establish its new identity and to disengage from its previous trading identities.
Telstra has faced competition since the late
1980s from
Optus and a host of other smaller providers. It retains ownership of the fixed-line telephone network, as well as one of two competing pay-tv and data cable networks. Other companies offering fixed-line services must therefore deal with Telstra. Competing
Telecommunication companies have constantly accused Telstra of overcharging for wholesale access to their networks (notably for ADSL, allegedly to protect their cable-modem broadband product); the
ACCC has often agreed but decisions by the regulator are very slow.
Telstra was partially
Privatised by the coalition government in the late
1990s , but it is still 51.8% owned by the government, which would like to divest the remaining portion but this had been blocked until the 14th of September, 2005, both by a hostile
Senate , and because of financial and electoral considerations.
Earlier partial floats attracted a great deal of public interest but have, in many cases, been spectacularly poor investments, a majority of which was caused by global sentiment about telecommunications companies first inflating, and then just as quickly deflating the share price. There seems no immediate prospect of the share price climbing back to the level at which the earlier shares were originally sold.
The
Australian Labor Party (ALP) has consistently opposed full privatisation and continues to do so. Their official party platform also notes a desire for the wholesale and retail arms of Telstra to be more "clearly distinct" within the company to enable fairer competition with private telecommunications providers who use Telstra's lines. In the past, Labor Party figures (including
Lindsay Tanner ) floated the idea of a breakup of the company into separate retail and wholesale businesses, though this proposal was dropped after opposition from
Trade Union s. The
Australian Greens , the
Australian Democrats and key independent Senators
Meg Lees and
Len Harris held similar positions to the ALP, which meant that until the 2004 elections any bill for full privatisation was guaranteed to fail in the Senate.
Since the Coalition gained control of the Senate, it passed the privatisation legislation with a majority of 37-35. In many rural areas, the availability of
Mobile Phone services and
Broadband internet services, as well as general service quality, remain topics of contention for many rural customers. Additionally, rural voters feel that a privatised Telstra will neglect its much less profitable rural networks, placing further pressure on the National Party not to support the sale. Ultimately, the National Party supported the sale, drawing criticism from state Farmers Federations, but not the National Farmers Federation.
On 14th September 2005, the Australian senate concluded that the sale of Telstra would be legalised, with mass media dispute over the effects. The decision coincided with
Mark Latham 's press release stating bitter remarks about Australian politics, overshadowing the sale of Telstra. In the Senate, Senator Barnaby Joyce drew criticism for reneging on his campaign promise to oppose the sale of Telstra.
Before Telstra was privatised its industrial relations was largely dealt with on a collective basis. The
Community And Public Sector Union (CPSU) had coverage of Telstra workers as they had for a long time been public servants.
With the
Howard Government coming into power and the corporatisation of Telstra, collective agreements, known as
Enterprise Bargaining Agreement s (EBAs) in Australia were replaced by individual contracts known as
Australian Workplace Agreement s (AWAs) as the dominant form of employment relationship. All new Telstra staff members must sign an AWA or they will not be employed by Telstra.
This approach to industrial relations by Telstra has led to a campaign by the CPSU to highlight the disadvantages AWA employees have when compared to those employed under EBAs. For example, AWA employees have sick leave only when Telstra agrees to pay for it. This decision is made irrespective of whether an employee is genuinely sick or not.
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Telstra owns and operates all copper line based
PSTN services in Australia. The only competing fixed line service is the
Optus network which uses HFC to deliver telephony services to a rather limited percentage of the population. Most of Telstra's profit is generated from fixed line services. Telstra recently issued a profit warning to due declined growth in the fixed line market. People seem to be shifting from their fixed line services to mobile carriers.
Telstra outsources a significant portion of network installation and maintenance to private contractors and businesses, such as
ABB Communications and
STCJV . As such, customers now frequently have to deal with third-parties when arranging the installation of a new phone line or a maintenance service call for a faulty line.
Telstra operates
GSM ,
CDMA and
3G mobile telephony networks throughout Australia.
Telstra also provide Prepaid Mobile services, via
Telstra Pre-Paid Plus , utilising all Mobile telephony networks that Telstra operates.
In late
2005 , Telstra announced that it will replace all three networks with a new
WCDMA network.
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Telstra, through its retail Internet Service Provider,
BigPond , sells broadband internet access via
ADSL , HFC
Cable ,
Satellite , and
Wireless access through its
EV-DO network. Telstra has over 1 million ADSL customers.
Telstra, through its retail Internet Service Provider,
BigPond sell dialup internet access.
As well as owning 50% of the Australian Subscription Television provider
Foxtel , Telstra's Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) Cable network is one of the delivery systems used by
Foxtel . Telstra also resell
Foxtel 's "Digital" products in Foxtel's service area and
Austar 's "Digital" product, in Austar's service area.
Telstra's ownership of
Foxtel has in the past come under fire from the
Australian Labor Party (ALP)
Sensis : is Telstra's wholly-owned advertising and directories arm. Sensis publishes Australia's
White Pages and
Yellow Pages telephone directories, and recently purchased (2004) the ''Trading Post'' (a classified advertising periodical). In addition, they manage several websites:
Sensis are also responsible for all of Telstra's telephony directory assistance, from basic (1223, 12455) to premium (1234) and emergency (000) services.
Visit Sensis' corporate site
Telstra's market dominance extends beyond its historical PSTN voice and private data business, into newer markets such as Internet Access, Hosting, and Colocation services. In spite of competition from both foreign and domestic challengers, the former
PTT has retained a strong grip on many of the country's most profitable customers.
Optus remains the companies' closest rival for lucrative business networks. However, Telstra supplies almost twice as many customers in the
ASX200 with Dedicated Internet Access services.
Telstra has attempted to expand into international markets. More notable is a joint venture with
Hong Kong entrepreneur
Richard Li and his company
Pacific Century Cyberworks during the late 1990s telecommunications boom. Their undersea cable venture,
Reach , has struggled, with its book value downgraded to zero by the company in February
2003 (it continues to operate, though, and the company believes that it may still be viable in the longer term).
In
2002 , Telstra also acquired PCCW's remaining 40% stake in
Regional Wireless Company (RWC), giving it total ownership of CSL, then the most prominent of Hong Kong's six mobile operators.
Telstra also fully owns
New Zealand subsidiary
TelstraClear . The company was formed in 2001 from the merger of subsidiary TelstraSaturn (a 50/50 joint-venture with
Austar which had previously acquired
ISPs Paradise.net and NetLink) and the telco Clear Communications purchased from
BT Group Plc . TelstraClear also operates a
Cable TV brand Saturn.
For marketing reasons, two national sporting arenas bear the name Telstra. They are the
Telstra Dome in
Melbourne and
Telstra Stadium in
Sydney .
