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Telstra or Telstra Corporation Ltd (often abbreviated as Telstra Corp), (ASX: TLS, NZX: TLS) is an Australian telecommunications and media company, formerly owned by the Australian government. Telstra is the largest provider of both local and long distance telephone services, mobile services, dialup, wireless, DSL and cable internet access in Australia.[4][5] Telstra is based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Formerly Telecom Australia, the company was renamed in 1993 under the Telstra brand. It was privatised in stages between 1997 and 2006. Telstra's headquarters are located at the Telstra Corporate Centre in Melbourne, Australia.
[edit] History   Australian telecommunications services were originally controlled by the Postmaster-General's Department (PMG). On 1 July 1975, separate commissions were established by statute to replace the PMG. Responsibility for postal services was transferred to the Australian Postal Commission (Australia Post). The Australian Telecommunications Commission (ATC), trading as Telecom Australia, ran domestic telecommunication services. In 1989 the ATC was reconstituted as the Australian Telecommunications Corporation. In 1992 the Overseas Telecommunications Commission, a separate government body established in 1946, was merged with the Australian Telecommunications Corporation into the short-lived Australian and Overseas Telecommunications Corporation (AOTC) which continued trading under the established identities of Telecom and OTC. The AOTC was renamed to Telstra Corporation Limited in 1993. The corporation then traded under the "Telstra" brand internationally and "Telecom Australia" domestically until uniform branding of "Telstra" was introduced throughout the entire organisation in 1995. Telstra has faced competition since the early 1990s from Optus (Australia's 2nd largest communication company) and a host of other smaller providers. It retains ownership of the fixed-line telephone network, as well as one of two competing pay-TV and data cable networks. Other companies offering fixed-line services must therefore deal with Telstra except Optus, Transact and a few others who have installed their own infrastructure. On 15 December 2008, it was announced that Telstra's bid for the National Broadband Network had been rejected by the Australian Government.[6] This resulted in Telstra's share price nose-diving from $4.12 to $3.36 during trading on the ASX on the 16 December 2008.[7] [edit] BrandingFrom 1998, Telstra used the slogan "Making life easier", however this slogan was dropped in 2000. The original Telstra logo introduced in 1993 symbolized a telephone receiver beneath the leg of the "T", however, coinciding with the launch of the Next G Network in late 2006, Telstra began to replace this with a modified logo where leg of the T is no longer implied. Initially this logo was rendered in a 3D "bubbly" effect and used brighter colours than the 2D variant, however Telstra's branding team dropped this 3D effect in early 2007, reverting to the original corporate colours. More recently, Telstra have chosen to use simply the "T" from the logo in advertising and promotional material. [edit] PrivatisationTelstra was privatized in three different stages, informally known as T1, T2 and T3 in 1997, 1999 and 2006[8] In T1, the government sold one third of its shares in Telstra for $14 billion AUD[8] In 1999, a further 16% of Telstra shares were sold to the public, leaving the Australian government with 51% ownership. In 2006, T3 was announced by the government and was the largest of the three public releases, reducing the Government's ownership of Telstra to 17%.[9] The 17% remainder of Telstra was placed in Australia's Future Fund, which will provide superannuation and pensions for Australia's public servants.[10] In 2009 the Future Fund sold off another $2.4B worth of shares reducing the government's stake in Telstra to 10.9%.[11] [edit] Proposed structural separationOn 15 September 2009, the Australian Government announced plans to structurally separate Telstra into two separate entities; a retail and wholesale arm.[12] Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband and Communications, has stated to Telstra that the company can either "break itself up or (the government) will do it for them".[13] [edit] Services[edit] Fixed Lines  Telstra is Australia's dominant and largest provider of Fixed Line services. These include home phone, business and other PSTN products. Due to Telstra owning the majority if not all of Australia's copper network, this has allowed them to become the dominant provider of these services.[citation needed] Telstra outsources a significant portion of network installation and maintenance to private contractors and joint ventures, such as ABB Communications and STCJV (Siemens Thiess Communications Joint Venture)[14] Telstra also owns and maintains the majority of Australia's public telephones. In 2006, Telstra announced it would remove many of the phones citing unprofitability due to vandalism and the increasing take-up and use of mobile telephones[15].  [edit] Telstra MobileSee also: Next G  Telstra Mobile is Australia's largest mobile telephone service providers, in terms of both subscriptions[16] and coverage[17]. Telstra operates Australia's largest GSM and 3G UMTS (branded as Next G) mobile telephony networks in Australia[18], as well as holding a 50% stake in the 3GIS Ltd 2100 MHz UMTS network infrastructure, shared with Hutchison (Three)[citation needed]. As of September 2007, Telstra had an estimated 9.3M mobile subscribers [16]. Telstra Mobile services are available in post-paid and prepaid payment types, known as Telstra Pre-Paid (formerly communic8 Pre-Paid).[19] Telstra's GSM network was the first digital mobile network in Australia. It was launched in April 1993 on the 900 MHz band as "Telstra MobileNet Digital"[20]. The GSM network has carried the majority of Telstra's mobile subscribers for the last 10 years and has seen numerous upgrades[citation needed]. 1800 MHz capacity channels were added to the network in the late 1990s as well as GPRS packet data transmission capabilities. As part of the UMTS Next G deployment, the GSM network was also upgraded to a full EDGE data transmission capability in 2006 providing data transmission capabilities greater than 40kbit/s on its GSM network[21]. In 1981, Telstra (then Telecom Australia) was the first company to provide mobile telephony services in Australia[22] The first automated mobile service operated in the major capital cities on 500 MHz using the '007' dialing prefix. This network only provided "car phone" capabilities to subscribers as portable handheld terminals were not practical at that time. The first cellular system in Australia offering portable handheld phones was launched by Telstra in 1987 using the AMPS analogue standard on the 800 MHz band. This network at its peak had over 1 million subscribers, but was mandated by the government to be closed down by the year 2000, partially due to privacy concerns which resulted from the AMPS technology, but also because of arrangements undertaken to secure sufficient interest in the GSM network licenses offered in 1992 to competitors. A license condition placed on Telstra to maintain an equivalent coverage footprint at the time resulted in Telstra deciding to deploy an IS-95 CDMA based network in its place. [edit] InternetTelstra provides internet subscription and various internet services (such as IP networking, email, servers and network hosting) through its range of subsidiaries.
[edit] Telstra InternetTelstra Internet is the national internet backbone for Telstra[citation needed] , within Australia. Telstra sells direct (business-grade) connections to the backbone under the Telstra Internet Direct name, and consumer Dialup, ADSL, Cable Modem and Satellite connections under the BigPond brand name. Telstra acquired the national backbone of AARNet in 1995 and renamed it to Telstra Internet. Telstra Internet buys long-haul capacity and international transit from REACH Global Services. [edit] Wholesale Telstra Wholesale[23] provides products such as Data, Mobile, Voice, and other Facilities (including Colocation and Duct Access)[24] to other companies and organisations for re-sale.[25]. Telstra Wholesale also provides operational support for its customers[26], and facilities for international customers such as International Data Transport and IP Transport[27]. Due to Telstra's position as Australia's incumbent telecommunications provider, Telstra Wholesale is the incumbent and dominant wholesaler of ADSL services to other Internet Service Providers. Telstra installed the first DSLAMs in exchanges prior to 2000, and began wholesaling access in late 2000.[28] Telstra Wholesale has a comprehensive network of ADSL DSLAMs (the largest in Australia) and allows competitors access to each Telstra DSLAM at ADSL1 speeds. [edit] BigPondMain article: BigPond  Telstra owns and operates the largest cable internet network in Australia. Telstra Cable operates in selected cities of Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and the Gold Coast), providing downstream speeds of up to 30 Mbit/s in selected areas. Telstra announced they are planning to upgrade their cable network in Metropolitan areas to allow downstream speeds of up to 100Mbit/s. The upgrade was scheduled to complete in Melbourne by Christmas 2009, and launched the new DOCSIS 3.0 services on December 1st 2009 before the deadline. Telstra provides internet services for personal and business clients, through its internet service provider (ISP), BigPond. BigPond provides internet products over various delivery methods, including:
At the end of the 2007 financial year, BigPond had over two million broadband subscribers.[29] The existing customer base of Bigpond Wireless is currently being migrated over to the Next G network, which offers higher speeds and greater coverage. On 10 November 2006, Telstra made two major changes to their ADSL network. The first was an increase of wholesale ADSL speeds from 1.5 Mbit/s/256 kbit/s to 8 Mbit/s/384kbit/s. Telstra also released an ADSL2+ broadband service offering download speeds of up to 24 Mbit/s from exchanges where competitors were already offering ADSL2+ services. On 6 February 2008, Telstra announced that it would activate high-speed ADSL2+ broadband in a further 900 telephone exchanges serving 2.4 million consumers across every state and territory in Australia. Telstra also claimed that it has received assurances from the Government that it would not be forced to wholesale these services to other providers, and that the move came "after the Government made clear it did not consider a compelling case had been made for regulating third-party access to the service – an assurance sought by Telstra for more than one year."[30] On 10 June 2008, it was announced that Telstra was in discussions with some wholesale customers in reference to wholesaling ADSL2+ services.[31] In January 2009 Telstra was ranked top Australian ISP, in terms of performance, by Epitiro, with Optus placing at 5th position. [1] [edit] Telstra ShopsTelstra owns and operates a series of retail stores known as Telstra Shops and the newer T[life] stores. The stores exist in many different formats ranging from those fitted in the mid 1990's, right through to the state of the art T[life] stores in which the demo phones are fully operational. Telstra Shops offer a face to face point of contact for a range of Telstra Services[citation needed] Telstra is currently in the process of progressively converting all Telstra Shops to T[life] stores and in the year 2009 Telstra and their T[life] stores have split up. Someone who knows about this can expand on this article more. [edit] CriticismsBigPond rates poorly in independent customer satisfaction surveys, in both customer service and value for money. Choice Magazine in October 2007 found BigPond the worst provider for both ADSL and Wireless internet[32]. A previous survey found less than a third found BigPond to be good value for money and just as few would recommend BigPond to a friend.[33] In this survey, BigPond came second last, with Dodo coming last.[33] However, despite these criticisms, BigPond remains by far the largest ISP in Australia. According to Alexa statistical analysis of Yellow Pages traffic, Yellow Pages online website traffic is dramatically down over the last year.[34]
[edit] Subscription televisionTelstra's Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) (commonly referred to as "Cable") network is one of the delivery systems used by the Australian Subscription Television provider Foxtel. Telstra owns 50% of Foxtel in a joint venture with News Corporation and Consolidated Media Holdings. Telstra also resell Foxtel's "Digital" to customers in Foxtel's service area (as "Foxtel from Telstra").Telstra offers discounts for Telstra full-service fixed line customers, with internet, pay TV and/or mobile services with Telstra. Such discounts can include free installation and the first month of the best Foxtel package (all channels) for free[35] [edit] Directories and advertising (Sensis) Sensis is Telstra's wholly owned advertising and directories arm. This subsidiary was originally known as Pacific Access (since 1991), before changing its name to Sensis in August 2002[36]. Sensis publishes Australia's White Pages and Yellow Pages telephone directories, and in 2004 purchased the Trading Post, a classified advertising periodical. Sensis also manages several websites including:
Sensis is responsible for Telstra's telephone directory assistance call centres - including 1223 ("Telstra Directory Assistance"), 12456 ("Call Connect"), 1225 ("International Directories") and 1234 ("1234").[citation needed] [edit] Market position and power
Telstra's market dominance extends beyond its historical PSTN voice and private data business, into newer markets such as Internet Access, Hosting, and Colocation services. In spite of competition from both foreign and domestic challengers, the former PTT is perceived to have retained a strong grip on many of the country's most profitable customers. Optus remains the company's nearest rival for lucrative business networks. However, Telstra supplies almost twice as many customers in the ASX200 with Dedicated Internet Access services.[citation needed] In March 2008, all 7 judges in the High Court of Australia, the highest court of appeal in Australia, ruled that Telstra has the right to use the telephone lines, but does not own them.[37] [edit] Fibre-to-the-node (FTTN)Main article: National Broadband Network Telstra is advocating the development of a nationwide FTTN network which, in conjunction with VDSL2 technology, would enable up to 100 Mbit/s symmetric download and upload speeds to the home. Competitors, such as the G9, have proposed similar developments, with both Telstra and G9 making progress on various fronts including political and regulatory expectations and funding. Telstra has indicated that it will not proceed with building the network until it receives regulatory certainty that it will not be forced to wholesale FTTN access to competitors at rates it believes are unfair. On 26 November 2008, Telstra submitted a non-complying tender issued by the federal government to build a National Broadband Network. Instead of following the tender guidelines, Telstra submitted a 12 page letter proposing a $5 billion broadband network covering between 80 and 90 per cent of Australia, in particular, only major cities, despite the tender requiring 98 per cent coverage.[38][39] Telstra was removed from the National Broadband Network RFP process on the 15th of December 2008. According to a spokesman for the Communications Minister Stephen Conroy "The expert panel has determined that Telstra’s submission to the national broadband network is not compliant. They are out of the process now."[40] As retaliation for being excluded from the NBN bidding Telstra has announced that it will raise speeds on its existing Next G network and HFC "cable" network so that they both offer higher speeds that the RFP for the NBN requires.[41] Following Telstra's exclusion from the National Broadband Network bidding process Telstra's share price suffered it biggest one day percentage fall in its history.[42] [edit] Employment
In April 2006, the appointment of Fiona Balfour saw Vish Padmanabhan demoted to his previous role of deputy CIO[43] On 6 February 2007, Chief Information Officer, Fiona Balfour left the company 10 months after she joined the company from 14 years with Qantas.[44] Telstra's employment policies have been the subject of some criticism. On ABC's (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) documentary program Four Corners, Telstra's COO Greg Winn was revealed to have stated "We run an absolute dictatorship and that’s what’s going to drive this transformation and deliver results... If you can’t get the people to go there and you try once and you try twice... then you just shoot ‘em and get them out of the way..."[45] In May 2009, Solomon Trujillo stood down as Chief Executive Officer to return to the United States. David Thodey took over the role.[46] [edit] International expansionTelstra has expanded into international markets.
[edit] Sponsorship [edit] SportingTelstra had naming rights to the Telstra Dome in Melbourne, but lost these rights to Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, from 1 March 2009 onwards[52]. Telstra is also the naming rights sponsor of the National Rugby League Premiership. Telstra is also the principal sponsor of Swimming Australia. They also sponsored Minardi for the 2002 F1 season. [edit] New ZealandTelstra also has the naming rights (under TelstraClear) for the TelstraClear Pacific events centre in Manukau City, New Zealand. [edit] References
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Categories: Companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange | Companies listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange | Members of the Asia Mobility Initiative | Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange | Telecommunications companies of Australia | Mobile phone companies | Telstra | Companies based in Melbourne | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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