Mark Pesce analyses why Australians hate Telstra, the monopolistic telephone carrier. Telstra is frantically trying to make a deal that protects their network monopoly and protects their market position. They are buying lots of ads and railing against the competition regulator, which is rebuffing the bluff and bluster. At the same time, the government is keen to make a deal that helps them to get re-elected. All bets are off if Labor is elected.
Australia lags significantly behind other western countries and the infrastructure is poor or not available for commercial reasons outside the major cities. The major sticking point is the price that other users who want to access the network, mostly paid for by Australians, prior to privatisation, are charged. Telstra wants to charge about three times what I currently pay per month for secondary providers to access the network. In New Zealand, where they are a minority player, they are using exactly the opposite argument.
Monopolists. They are all the same.
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