Government pushes for Telstra break-up
The government has today attempted to start a process that would see Telstra split into more than one company in a move that has major implications for the roll-out of broadband in Australia.
Media minister Stephen Conroy has called on the telco – which dominates Australia’s fixed phone line, broadband cable and mobile industry – to go through a structural separation on a “voluntary” basis. He said:
“For years industry has been calling for fundamental and historic micro-economic reform in telecommunications. Today we are delivering this outcome in Australia’s long term national interest.
“Telstra is one of the most highly integrated telecommunications companies in the world across the fixed-line copper, cable and mobile platforms.
“The reforms address the structure of the telecommunications market and provide Telstra with the flexibility to choose its future path.”
“It is the Government’s clear desire for Telstra to structurally separate, on a voluntary and cooperative basis.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large. He returned to Mumbrella as Publisher in January 2025
Linkedin
One would have to think that several smaller (but still large) focussed organisations should be able to serve their customers better than one large one trying to do many things. I can’t tell from you article whether Conroy’s plan is to split up Telstra into such groups.
User ID not verified.
obviously Stephen Conroy has nothing to do. It really surprises me that when a polititan has another agenda that they tend to deflect to something else. Whats your agenda Mr. Conroy? Leave Telstra the way it is and try supporting the good things that they do!
User ID not verified.
Conroy is merely undoing the crap job done by the previous government at privatisation. The network operations and marketing functions should never have been privatised together.
I think today is a good day for Telstra and Australia, but others may disagree.
User ID not verified.
Probably not the best day for shareholders but long overdue for others. AGM is next week. Should be interesting!
User ID not verified.
I realize this isn’t a great day for share holders, but for consumers who have been overpaying for very basic services, because there is no other competitors in the area, this is the day we have all been waiting for. I say faster pussy cat kill kill…
User ID not verified.
So, do you think that this will be better in the long term for shareholders ie. each of the separate divisions given the focus and support to grow?
User ID not verified.
It should, yes.
User ID not verified.
Then bring it on!
User ID not verified.
Well I knew Mr Conroy was hiding something…..and I think it has to do with the national roleout of the broadband network. Also ask yourselves why the government sold off Telstra Shares that they had in futures funds nearly two weeks ago fully knowing that the price was going to plumit…is this called insider trading???? Does the government really care about the people. if the goverment gets away with this, what else can it do to other companies when it has got itself into a mess?
User ID not verified.
The planned break up of Telstra can not come soon enough. In order for ITV to come into this country and for sites such as Hulu to be able to exist we need a system which divides content from quota, can anyone in Australia name one other company which would allow content to be engrained so heavily into infrastructure. Telstra’s purchases of quickflix, foxtel and the recent startup of it own news network was very worrying. What was more worrying was the way that they set up their service so if you downloaded from their site it didnt detract from your data usage but if you used a free to air site such as SBS (which is by far the best multimedia/ ITV site in oz) then they would take away from your quote. Telstra was charging $150 for 60 gb and this justified them selling wholesale at such ridiculous prices it’s good that the entire internet content can now be removed from telstras monopoly. P.S: although i disagree with telstra not charging quota for using their sites i am fine with iinet doing so as they built there own infrastructure without a pre existing customer base unlike telstra who already had 15 million customers as soon as they existed.
User ID not verified.
Isn’t it interesting that Telstra poached Stephen Conroy’s NBN policy advisor, Tim Watts, only two months ago.
User ID not verified.