Source: The Age - Garry Barker
24th February, 2006

The days of Telstra's circuit-switched telephone network that has served Australia for a century may be numbered.

Source: The Australian - John Lehmann
23rd February, 2006

Pay-TV operator Foxtel drummed up underlying earnings of $55 million in the second half of 2005, breaking into the black last month for the first time in its 10-year history.

Source: The Australian - James Riley
22nd February, 2006

Telstra could face tougher licensing conditions to force it to improve its presence in the bush as concerns grow about cost-cutting at the telecommunications giant.

Source: The Age
22nd February, 2006

Optus has thrown the bush a life line with an offer to take over the running of payphones.

Source: The Age - Jason Koutsoukis
21st February, 2006

Communications Minister Helen Coonan has ordered an urgent meeting with Telstra executives to discuss plans to scrap 5000 payphones.

Source: SMH - Gwyn Topham and David Humphries
21st February, 2006

In the past six years nearly 17,000 payphones have disappeared, and initial reports suggested Telstra wanted to cut 5000 of the 32,000 that remain.

Source: The Australian - Nicki Bourlioufas
21st February, 2006

Telstra shares closed yesterday at $3.81, down 21 cents from their previous close. The stock is trading well short of its 52-week high of $5.50 and just above its all-time low of $3.75.

Source: ABC Radio PM - Transcript of broadcast, 20/02/06 - Louise Yaxley
21st February, 2006

Telstra says it's not obliged to keep all the public phone boxes that currently dot the nation. The Communications Minister Helen Coonan has responded by threatening to change the rules so that it cannot remove public phones.

Source: The Land
21st February, 2006

Rural Australia’s scepticism about the future of Telstra has been fuelled by news that the telecommunications giant will remove 5000 public phones from Australian communities.

Source: The Australian/AAP
20th February, 2006

Communications Minister Helen Coonan says she's disappointed Telstra planned to remove payphones without consulting with the government. Senator Coonan said she had not been briefed on the plan and wanted an explanation.

Source: The Age
20th February, 2006

Telstra is said to have approved plans to slash 5,000 of its 32,000 payphones in country towns and capital cities over the next seven months.

Source: ABC Online
20th February, 2006

Telstra says it is within its rights to scrap thousands of payphones around Australia, and has been consulting with the community via stickers placed on phones under threat.

Source: SMH
16th February, 2006

Telstra will find out within weeks whether it will face a competition notice over its plan to increase the price for line rental it charges its wholesale customers.

Source: The Age - Rod Myer
16th February, 2006

Telstra's massive capital expenditure program and major technology challenge has led Standard & Poor's to cut its credit rating one notch to A with a negative outlook.

Source: The Age - Meaghan Shaw
16th February, 2006

Thousands of businesses have established new workplace deals with unions ahead of the implementation of the Government's IR laws next month, designed to protect workers' pay and conditions ahead of the legislation.

Source: ABC Online
15th February, 2006

New research shows few Australian employees have taken up the offer to change their superannuation fund.

Source: The Australian
15th February, 2006

Australian wages are increasing at a slower rate. The Melbourne Institute wages report for the three months to February found annual growth in its total pay indicator fell 1.6 per cent from the three months to November.

Source: ABC OnLine
14th February, 2006

Telstra has been pressed to explain what has happened to $200 million it had set aside to upgrade its ailing copper-based network.

Source: Daily Telegraph - Terry McCrann
13th February, 2006

Yesterday was the day not when the music died, with apologies to American Pie's Don McLean, but when the 20th century did.

Source: The Age - Rod Myer
13th February, 2006

Telstra's race to migrate its business to a new technological footing is becoming increasingly uncertain.

Source: ABC-TV Lateline - Transcript of broadcast 10/02/2006 - Rachel Carbonell
13th February, 2006

Telstra boss Sol Trujillo was dealt another blow today - this time, by the Prime Minister.

Source: The Age - Stephen Bartholomeusz
10th February, 2006

There was one disturbing note, and one quite pleasant surprise, in Telstra's December-half result.

Source: The Age - Malcolm Maiden
10th February, 2006

Telstra's fixed line network continued to dwindle, accounting for 33 per cent of sales versus 40 per cent two years ago.

Source: The Age - Colin Kruger
10th February, 2006

A worse than expected decline in its lucrative fixed line business and a well-flagged 10 per cent drop in first-half earnings to $2.14 billion didn't deter Telstra investors from pushing the share price higher yesterday.

Source: The Age
10th February, 2006

Highly skilled workers could be $400 a week worse off under a proposal to replace all award classification levels and pay rates with just four minimum rates of pay, the ACTU says.

Source: The Australian - Michael Sainsbury
10th February, 2006

Telstra will accelerate its plans to cut up to 8000 jobs as its struggles to contain costs in the face of stubbornly slow revenue growth only six months ahead of possible full privatisation.

Source: The Age - Andrea Tan and Haslinda Amin
9th February, 2006

Singapore Telecommunications, South-East Asia's largest telephone company, said it would consider buying Telecom New Zealand's Australian unit, AAPT.

Source: The Age - Stephen Bartholomeusz
9th February, 2006

If the SingTel-Optus results for the nine months to March provide a backdrop to today's Telstra interim performance, it is a bleak one.

Source: The Age - Colin Kruger
9th February, 2006

Optus, Australia's No.2 telecom, reported lower earnings for the December quarter, down 4.8 per cent to $160 million.

Source: ABC Radio - AM - Transcript of broadcast, 07/02/06 - Alison Caldwell
8th February, 2006

The Federal Government's new industrial relations laws will be put to the test in the High Court, with a directions hearing beginning in Canberra tomorrow. The states will challenge the new laws on the basis that they're unconstitutional.

Source: The Age - Garry Barker
8th February, 2006

Telstra's half-year profit is expected to show a drop of 10-12 per cent, mainly due to declining returns from the copper fixed-line network.

Source: The Australian - Michael Sainsbury and James Riley
8th February, 2006

Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce has left open the option to vote with Labor today to force Telstra chief executive Sol Trujillo to appear before a Senate committee.

Source: The Australian IT - Michael Sainsbury
6th February, 2006

Telstra has completed the initial phase of a massive overhaul of its $1.3 billion-a-year information technology operations that could see hundreds more jobs moved offshore to India.

Source: The Australian - Paul Osborne
4th February, 2006

Telstra has released its plan to split its operations into three parts (wholesale, retail and network divisions) ahead of its full sale, but critics have labelled the draft document a sham.

Source: SMH - Matt O'Sullivan
3rd February, 2006

Telecom New Zealand has suffered a $NZ466 million ($424.3 million) loss for the first half, after slashing the value of troubled Australian subsidiary AAPT.

Source: SMH - Stephen Bartholomeusz
3rd February, 2006

On Wednesday, Hutchison's made the seemingly innocuous announcement of plans to merge the group's two mobile phone brands, Orange and 3.

Source: The Australian - James Riley
3rd February, 2006

Sol Trujillo has defied the demands of senators to appear before estimates hearings in Canberra this month to discuss Telstra's investment plans for the bush.

Source: The Age
3rd February, 2006

Telstra has agreed to split its operations into three parts in the lead-up to its full sale. The government last year set Telstra the task of writing an operational separation plan as a precondition for its full sale, expected this year.

Source: The Australian/AAP
2nd February, 2006

Optus has been given the go ahead to join a legal battle between the competition watchdog and Telstra about prices charged by the telecommunications giant.

Source: The Australian/AAP
2nd February, 2006

Telstra shares leapt to a two-and-a-half month high today amid speculation the Federal Government might offload some of its stake in the telco through instalment receipts.

Source: The Age - Rhys Haynes
2nd February, 2006

Almost half a million Hutchison mobile subscribers will be offered a new 3G, or third generation, handset as the company merges its Orange and "3" mobile brands.

Source: The Age - Jeni Porter
2nd February, 2006

Just before Telstra chief executive Sol Trujillo unveiled his plan to slash jobs and improve customer service, he spent $1.3 million booking out an island in the Whitsundays for a senior staff getaway.

Source: SMH - Alan Kohler
1st February, 2006

A final decision on T3 is six months off but here's an early prediction: the third Telstra sale, if it goes ahead, will be an instalment rights issue to existing shareholders.