Judging by my past post you’d probably think that today I would be celebrating the proposed structural separation of Telstra. I guess I am, but the way it’s being forced on them, although good for consumers, is not good for business. Government should not be able to force a commercial company to do anything, or prevent them from bidding in auctions.
The following is an extract from a comment I have just made on ITNews: –
“I agree with splitting Telstra, it should have been done ages ago, but …I really can’t agree with the way this is being done. How can the ACCC stand by and let the government say “and by the way if you don’t agree we’re not going to let you buy spectrum”. I always thought one of those C’s in ACCC stood for competion? Obviously not!
And what has Foxtel got to do with anything? Seems like it would just be a way to punish if Telstra don’t agree! Telstra is a commercial enterprise, the government created this mess by selling them, they shouldn’t now be able to impose new conditions on them.
Goverment and ACCC, my message to you would be yes this is a good idea, as it always has been (you should have kept control of the infrastrucure in my opinion). Unfortunately you realized that too late. Force Telstra into price parity for selling access. Ensure they don’t drive competition out of business with either anticompetitive pricing or legal actions, but don’t try to force a commercial company to split. You sold them now we have to live with the consequences, like them or not.”