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June 23, 2008
Telstra: the spin isn't working
Who knows how much cash Telstra has spent attacking its critics and competitors, promoting itself as the champion of the national interest, and even using its financial muscle to prevent Bleeding Edge talking to a seniors' conference on computers. While we don't rely on its opposition site, TellTheTruthTelstra, for a completely unbiased point of view, reading through some of the posts indicates how Telstra is prepared to use the shabbiest sophistry to justify its self-serving tactics.
Right now, for instance, NowWeAreTalking - that expensive spin machine that it shamelessly promotes as a "blog" aimed at "setting the record straight" - is accusing former shadow Communications Minister Senator Kate Lundy of breaching parliamentary ethics in not disclosing that her husband, David Forman, is "on the payroll of the anti-Telstra cartel".
The fact that Forman is executive director of the Competitive Carriers Coalition is scarcely a secret, and to use the word "cartel" to describe Telstra's competitors is, in our view, bordering on defamation. A cartel is a group of companies which colludes to use its market power to set prices and output. It's not only totally untrue in the context of Australian telecommunications, it's a priceless irony: Telstra has all the market power in this country, and under its regime, consumers pay a heavy price. And if Rod Bruem's cynical, paid-for opinion isn't revolting enough, read the comments.
Apparently however, people are waking up to Telstra's tactics. According to a survey in Reader's Digest, Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo is one of the least trusted of Australia's most important or celebrated individuals. At No. 95 on a list of the most trusted people, headed by burns specialist Dr Fiona Wood and cancer researcher Professor Ian Frazer, Sol is equal with the faithless Shane Warne, and is rated as more trustworthy than only four notorious individuals: confessed terrorism supporter David Hicks, disgraced footballers Ben Cousins and Wayne Carey, and jailbird businessman Rodney Adler.
Reader's Digest offers some great advice to Sol and his senior management team. When it comes to being trusted, celebrity and being important doesn't count. Maligning and silencing your opponents doesn't work. Hiring mouthpieces like the too-clever-by-half Rod Bruem gets you nowhere. What works, according to Reader's Digest, is "humility, honesty and helping others". The public seems to have decided that Sol and his mates are interested "Sol-ely" in helping themselves.
Posted by cw at June 23, 2008 12:20 PM
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Comments
More trusted than Ben Cousins and David Hicks! I'm surprised, both of them were just boys who made errors of judgment and were crucified for it in kangaroo courts. The public must be even more naive than I assumed.
The Telstra problem was created by the Keating govt opening the door and the Howard govt then completely privatising a virtual monopoly (sic). The action was one made up of ideological ratbaggery combined with carpetbagging and the mentality of small town hicks. Oh, and the vision of a echidna on a very dull day while walking through long grass. It was a nice irony that the private corporation Howard created came back and bit him in the election year. Guess what, big companies play politics, and very hard when it is for high stakes concerning policies worth millions to them.
Telstra should clearly be broken up if it is to remain in private hands. Sadly we are not robust liberals like the United States or the EU so this seems unlikely to happen. Meanwhile as the cost of transport soars, and greenhouse gas emits, the case for Australia having infrastructure that can support the digital economy is even more urgent.
I have little faith in the pollies courage or the bureaucrats expertise to deal with this. Most of the bureaucrats who understood the technology, economics and policy aspects of telecommunications went with Telstra or joined its competitors. However, if the grass roots push enough, especially with the structural factors like soon to be $2 a litre fuel kicking in, maybe someone will have the guts to seriously regulate or re-nationalise some big parts of the sector.
Posted by: tflip at June 23, 2008 07:19 PM
Save money -- use BigPond maths!
Here's how to use Telstra's illogical pricing against it to save money.
A great piece by Paul Wright here:
Posted by: Shiraz99 at July 9, 2008 02:21 PM