Telstra - hang on to it or sell 'er off?

[4.9 EF Futura]

Seems we're all in a fairly opinionated mood this week

Full sale of Telstra is a bit of a headline at the moment following the Coalition assuming control of the senate... or so they thought before the vocal young queenslander piped up in support of his consituents.

Now i realise the full sale is interwoven with political agenda but if we can keep the 'howard sucks' 'beazly is fat' comments out of the thread it would be much appreicated.

So whaddya reckon? Sell it? Keep what's left? $3b fund for future upgrades a good idea? Should we be subsidising the bush at all? Is Barnaby Joyce off his rocker?

Im in two mindsets about the whole idea...

[Casper]

I say sell it all off and let them compete on a level playing field. Telstra has been a monolith of inept and incompetent management for far too long.

[XWGT]

It cant be avoided now. Once the first 49% was sold the rest simply had to go.

As for the seperation of wholesale and retail, I'm fairly certain its the only way to truly open up the competition, but I think it should have been split up into infrastructure and service sections instead.

As for the $3b fund for futures. Hmmm, the $2b is being put into trust, and its the interest that will be spent. And as for $1b for the bush. Well, unforutnatley there are people who cant get broadband within 15klm of our major cities, let alone 1500 klm out. $1bn is but a drop in the ocean, but the question has to be asked, where is the money to guaranteee broadband within suburbia?

Either way it s a demand driven commodity now. Enterprisiing companies such as iinet are already putting their own hardware into Telstra exhanges, so I think the natural push from competition will keep all parties both vibrant and competitive.

[4.9 EF Futura]

Good points guys... i guess what doesnt sit too well with me is that the monster is being divested in order to allow it to play on a level playing field... yet I understand there is still going to be reams of Telstra-specific legislation, which would obviously hold it back financially... as a potential investor i'd be taking a serious look at the risk the government poses to my shares being able to provide a return...

And as for guarantees on service in suburbia... is a publicly listed company required to provide such a guarantee?? I wouldnt think so... but goes to show that it's never going to be a real company is it...

[Heeno]

put it up as a poll

i would say keep it, unless its going to an australian then it would be alright to sell it. we sell off to many of our products to oversea's companies.

[Sourbastard]

Originally Posted by 4.9 EF Futura

Good points guys... i guess what doesnt sit too well with me is that the monster is being divested in order to allow it to play on a level playing field... yet I understand there is still going to be reams of Telstra-specific legislation, which would obviously hold it back financially... as a potential investor i'd be taking a serious look at the risk the government poses to my shares being able to provide a return...

And as for guarantees on service in suburbia... is a publicly listed company required to provide such a guarantee?? I wouldnt think so... but goes to show that it's never going to be a real company is it...

Essentially, its a lose lose situation folks.
As an investor you can invest in a company which is going to be legislated into the ground, not that Telstra has ever stopped being a Beauracracy, hence why its inept, slow to adapt, and impossible to manage from the top. Not a good investment is it.

As a end user, as the market continues to fragment you will start to see "Problem isnt on our end" issues with your service. Essentially the end result of phone companies all hammering away at the same infrastructure, some owning parts, some owning other parts, and if it doesnt gel, well its not on our end sir, please ring the relevant authority. They can barely get it right now between all the phone companies trying to save me .005 cents per eon on my phone calls through their service.

Same crap people, as usual, only the depth and texture varies.

[Velociraptor]

First we pay for it to be built then we pay for it to be installed then they hire to us then they charge us to use it and now they want to sell it to us but not all at once in case we dont make enough when we buy it.

[XplosiveR6]

im just warried about the quality of our telecommunications will be once its sold, as telstra is the backbone of all communications around the country, telstra is the one company who provides us the internet lines, and phone lines, the other companys simply lease their lines

[parawolf]

Originally Posted by EF_Dave

im just warried about the quality of our telecommunications will be once its sold, as telstra is the backbone of all communications around the country, telstra is the one company who provides us the internet lines, and phone lines, the other companys simply lease their lines

That simply is not true. Many "tier 2" ISP's have their own bandwidth out of this country via Satellite. Such ISP's are NetSpace, Alphalink, iPrimus, connect.com.au and many others.

Many major companies utilise their international IP bandwidth for their telephony. I know my company has international lines provided by 'equant' which in Australia is outsourced to Optus - which definately have their own international bandwidth.

Domestic and commercial bandwidth providers are not the issue. Its just a matter of getting that out of the person in the bush at a reasonable rate. Which is going to be massively difficult.