Source: ABC Online
30th April, 2005

Around 1.65 million Telstra shareholders received a special dividend on Friday. Shareholders received a 20 cents per share half-year dividend, at a total cost of $750 million. Telstra corporate relations manager Kerrina Lawrence says it was part of plan to return more than $1 billion to shareholders over the next three years.

Source: The Age - Garry Barker
30th April, 2005

The soothsayer's bones have fallen badly for David Moffatt, the man who, until recently, was thought to be a prime candidate to succeed Ziggy Switkowski at Telstra's helm.When he moved from being chief financial officer to managing director, consumer and marketing, and built an office with a marble-tiled bathroom on the 13th floor of the Rialto in Collins Street, the outlook was rosy.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald - Elizabeth Knight
29th April, 2005

It's a fair prediction that when Telstra chairman Donald McGauchie announces a new chief executive for Australia's largest company there will be some grins around the country's boardroom tables. It's now a near certainty that the frontrunner for the post soon to be vacated by Ziggy Switkowski is a US telecom executive. But these blokes don't come cheap - especially if you are particular about getting a good one.

Source: The Age - Kenneth Davidson
28th April, 2005

The final Telstra sell-off is shaping as another over-hyped fiasco, writes Kenneth Davidson. Last week, Minister for Finance Nick Minchin travelled to the United States for meetings with leading financial institutions to gauge international interest in the sale of the Government's remaining Telstra shares. Why? I would guess the main question addressed to Minchin by his roadshow audience would be why the share price has fallen from a peak of $8.50 in January 2000 to $4.84 last week and how much further the price is likely to fall when the market is flooded with the remaining 6.4 million shares held by the Government.

Source: The Australian - Katharine Murphy and James Riley
28th April, 2005

The competition regulator wants to slash Telstra's market power prior to its $35 billion full privatisation, despite concerns among senior government ministers that heavy-handed regulation could depress the sale price. Telstra needed to be split into a retail business and a network business to allow the ACCC to police competition in the market, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Graeme Samuel told the National Press Club in Canberra yesterday.

Source: The Age - Jason Koutsoukis
28th April, 2005

Queensland MP Bruce Scott has joined the growing list of National Party members opposing the $32 billion full sale of Telstra. He has argued that the phone company's Countrywide division should stay in government hands to preserve adequate standards of service in the bush. Mr Scott, whose seat of Maranoa includes some of the most remote communities in the country, said he would flag the proposal in a report to Federal Parliament next month.

Source: Vancouver Sun - Derrick Penner
23rd April, 2005

Canadian Telus employees outside the company's Burnaby headquarters Friday greeted the company's contract offer mostly with degrees of animosity ranging from thumbs-down signals to angry dismissals. Telus took the unprecedented step of bypassing the Telecommunications Workers Union and sending the offer, which includes wage increases, bonuses and other incentives, directly to employees.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald - Christine Lacy
21st April, 2005

He's not your usual slow-talking cow cocky, discovers Christine Lacy. UBS boss Chris Mackay will be grateful for the helping hand the returning Brad Orgill can offer in the top office while the banker takes a leading hand in the T3 scoping study. Also comforting must be the naming of Gordon Dickinson, Mackay's predecessor in the bank's top job, to replace Don McGauchie on the board of the rural arm, Telstra Country Wide. Dickinson's appointment slipped under the radar, with the banker taking up his newest post by attending a TCW board meeting in Darwin yesterday.

Source: The Age - Paul McIntyre
21st April, 2005

As Telstra media boss Gerry Sutton trooped through Hollywood this year chasing content deals for Telstra's internet TV project, the folks at Foxtel were quietly seething. Officially, there is a lot of love between Telstra and its 50 per cent-owned pay TV operator, but behind the video montage is a different plot. Telstra, like a growing list of telecommunications players, is preparing for a triple play: telephony, internet and video services. Already telcos in the US and Europe are aggressively rolling out internet protocol TV (IP TV) and Telstra's service could be launched before the end of next year. A key obstacle is sourcing the content and its cost.

Source: The Australian - Michael Sainsbury
21st April, 2005

Telstra chairman Donald McGauchie and Communications Minister Helen Coonan will visit British regulators and telco BT next week to explore the possibility of a more decisive split of Telstra into its retail and wholesale components. Known as "operational separation", such a move would stop short of splitting Telstra into two different companies ahead of the sale of the Government's remaining 51.8 per cent stake in the carrier. The move would require the company to report separate financial results for its wholesale and retail operations and even create a different board.

Source: ABC Online
21st April, 2005

The Federal Government is being warned the full privatisation of Telstra could affect the development of regional towns. A student at the University of Queensland, Alicia Cameron, has found a significant difference in the take-up of broadband technology in regional areas compared to the city. Ms Cameron says it is due to a lack of competition, lack of access to high-speed Internet connections and lack of marketing programs to encourage broadband use. She says if Telstra is privatised, fewer people will take up broadband technology.

Source: The Australian - AAP
20th April, 2005

Telstra today said earnings in the third quarter of 2004-05 rose 6.5 per cent to $5.34 billion, boosted by mobile, broadband and advertising sales. Year-to-date sales revenue was up 7.4 per cent to $16.6 billion while underlying sales were up 4.3 per cent to $16.3 billion. The underlying figure for the third quarter was up 3.3 per cent to $5.17 billion and just above the median market forecast of a three per cent gain. Underlying domestic sales revenue grew by 2.8 per cent to $4.79 billion.

Source: The Australian - James Riley
18th April, 2005

Finance Minister Nick Minchin will meet with top US finance houses this week to assess how a low-cost, Google-style share auction could be used to cut banking and broking charges during the sale of the Government's remaining Telstra stake. Senator Minchin travels to the US this morning with senior Finance Department officials to gauge international interest in the 51.8 per cent stake in Telstra. At more than $30 billion, the sale will be the biggest public share offering in history if handled in a single tranche.

Source: The Age - AAP
18th April, 2005

Telstra Corp Ltd has once again agreed to fork out extra money to help its troubled undersea cable joint venture Reach. Telstra will now provide Reach with $US106 million ($A138 million) to help the Asian cable network meets its capital expenditure commitments up to 2022. It's the latest handout from Telstra to Reach, which is trying to salvage what it can from the data capacity on the more than 40 undersea cables in its network.

Source: ABC Online - Peter Ryan
15th April, 2005

The sale of Telstra's advertising and directories arm, Sensis, is back on the agenda after the company's Chief Executive indicated that he was ready to start the float process if Telstra and the Federal Government were to give the order. Sensis is a privately owned subsidiary of Telstra valued at up to $15 billion. It's often been described as the jewel in Telstra's crown. The Chief Executive of Sensis, Bruce Akhurst, spoke to our Business Editor.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald - Richard Macey
15th April, 2005

It was a technological race between the best that 19th century science could muster and the latest in 21st century communications. Sitting by his morse code key, set up yesterday inside the Powerhouse Museum, was Gordon Hill, 93, a veteran telegraph operator who joined the post office 78 years ago. Across from him, armed with her mobile phone, was Brittany Devlin, 13, of Seven Hills, with two years of texting experience. "I send about three messages a day," she said. "I used to send lots more but I ran out of credit."

Source: The Age - Fleur Leyden
15th April, 2005

Vodafone Australia chief executive Grahame Maher, the person credited with turning around the telco's local fortunes, will pull up stumps by the end of next month. Mr Maher will become chief executive of Vodafone Sweden, handing the Australian reins to Vodafone Australia chief commercial officer Russell Hewitt. Mr Maher, who joined the Australian operation in September 2001, leaves the business in good shape following an aggressive cost-cutting and restructuring strategy.

Source: The Age - Tim Colebatch
15th April, 2005

The Productivity Commission has sharpened its call to the Federal Government for a wide-ranging reform program to increase competition, but in a significant shift has come out against splitting up Telstra's network before privatisation. In its 503-page final report on national competition policy reforms, released yesterday by Treasurer Peter Costello, the commission chides the Howard Government for failing to tackle some of the politically sensitive issues in competition policy. It also urges it to set up a wide range of reviews of critical areas.

Source: The Age - Fleur Leyden
13th April, 2005

The allocation of T3 roles continues with New York-based investment bank Merrill Lynch winning the job of advising Telstra on its likely full privatisation, and ensuring the bank gets a slice of the spoils if the Government goes through with the sale. The investment bank is believed to have been working for several years to secure the plum role as Telstra's adviser, but the appointment was met with some surprise. A Merrill Lynch spokesman would not comment.

Source: The Australian - Chris Jenkins and Michael Sainsbury
12th April, 2005

Telstra is banking on its Broadband Multi-Service project to save $500 million over five years and deliver the so-called "triple play" of voice, video and data services to residential customers via a single broadband connection, according to sources within the company. The project, which is designed to give the company an "aggregation layer" for a range of broadband network types, is a key plank of Telstra's overall Future Network strategy.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald - Stephen Bartholomeusz
12th April, 2005

It is obvious that Helen Coonan's issues paper on telecommunications competition regulation was written by the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, and not by Nick Minchin's Department of Finance and Administration. The paper's agenda reads, if not exactly like a wish list, like a list of the hot spots in the relationships Telstra has with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and its competitors, rather than the blueprint for maximising T3's proceeds Minchin might have preferred.

Source: The Age - Malcolm Maiden
12th April, 2005

Telstra chief executive Ziggy Switkowski quipped in February that Optus had become a "bonsai version of Telstra . . . smallish, well-formed, but not growing". The Optus reorganisation confirms that he was half right. Optus is growing. But it is, like Telstra, a full-service telco, and its new structure recognises that and capitalises on it by giving Optus' businesses more room to cross-sell and service the group's products.

Source: The Age - Jason Koutsoukis
12th April, 2005

Want Telstra to change its spots? Now is your last chance to tell the Federal Government what you think of telephone services around the country before Telstra is fully privatised. Releasing a discussion paper on competition within the telecommunications sector, Communications Minister Helen Coonan said all suggestions from the public on what changes should be made to make the industry more competitive would be considered. "Examining these issues is key to ensuring there is effective competition and future investment in telecommunications in Australia over the next five to 10 years," Senator Coonan said.

Source: The Australian - AAP
11th April, 2005

Optus will shed some managerial jobs under a company restructure aimed at making it easier for customers to get the combinations of products they want. Optus chief executive Paul O'Sullivan would not say how many jobs would go, only saying that "the numbers are not large" and would be mainly confined to management. Optus is hoping to cut the red tape for customers wanting to get combinations of products ? such as mobile phones, fixed line phones and the internet ? by arranging its divisions around the type of customer, rather than around the type of product.

Source: ABC Online
11th April, 2005

Communications Minister Helen Coonan has rejected the National Farmers Federation's (NFF) push to have telecommunication services in country Australia reviewed every three years. NFF telecommunications spokesman Mark Needham has told a Senate committee that the Government's proposal for five-yearly reviews of regional telecommunications will be inadequate. But Senator Coonan says the federation misunderstands the proposal

Source: The Australian - AAP
7th April, 2005

Telstra today said its rival Optus should not receive a regulatory break if it wants to extend its broadband network. Optus wants to install switches in 150 to 200 telephone exchanges so it can reduce the fees it has to pay to Telstra when Optus customers are connected through. However, Optus has not yet confirmed whether or not the $80 million plan will go ahead, as it instead waits for the outcome of talks with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), governments and Telstra.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald - Fleur Leyden with AAP
7th April, 2005

Optus chief executive Paul O'Sullivan has ruled himself out of the running for the top job at Telstra. Mr O'Sullivan would not say whether he had been approached for the position of Telstra chief executive, from which Ziggy Switkowski will depart by July 1. Meanwhile, both Optus and Telstra have secured roles in the second round of the Victorian Government's communications overhaul, sharing in a $51 million contract. The revamp, known as the Telecommunications Purchasing and Management Strategy, is expected to cut the state's communications costs by $200 million over five years.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald - AAP
6th April, 2005

Optus has provided more details on enlarging its broadband network, saying it will cost $80 million and cover about 1.2 million homes. This is the first phase of the plan by Australia's second-biggest telecommunications company to extend its own broadband network and reduce its dependence on rival Telstra's network. The plan is also, in the medium term, expected to boost margins, which have been squeezed as customers switch to lower-margin broadband products from their previous dial-up internet - often removing their need for a second phone line.

Source: The Australian - Michael Sainsbury
5th April, 2005

Telstra chairman Donald McGauchie has intervened to make a controversial executive appointment that triggered the recent resignation of Bill Scales, Telstra chief executive Ziggy Switkowski's chief of staff. John Short, a former key government relations manager at Telstra, this week returned on a long-term contract to work on the planned full privatisation of the company. The reappointment came about six months after leaving the company following differences with Mr Scales.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald - AAP
1st April, 2005

Telstra has rejected claims in a US report that it was misusing its market dominance. A new report by the US Trade Department said the telecommunication giant was slow to open up access to its main phone network and charged inflated prices to wholesale customers wanting to use its networks. "US industry remains concerned about the ability of the majority government-owned telecommunications firm, Telstra, to abuse its monopoly power," the report said.

Source: The Age - Jason Koutsoukis
1st April, 2005

Queensland Nationals senator-elect Barnaby Joyce has threatened to vote against the full sale of Telstra unless the Government forces the company to cut call charges. On Wednesday the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission recommended that Telstra be forced to cap local charges at 22 cents a call for the next three years and cut prices for core services such as line rental by 4 per cent a year.