Telcos try to shift blame to customers

TELCOS are blaming technology-challenged customers for the surge in complaints about phone and internet services. The Communications Alliance and the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association - representing the nation's telcos - have admitted to a government inquiry that "there are problems in areas of customer management".



Gold Coast software engineer Kim Holley [above] has no trouble keeping up with the technology; her beef with Telstra BigPond is over a simple billing error.

Every month since March, Ms Holley has been charged a late payment fee for her internet account, even though her bills are direct-debited to her credit card. "I've probably spent at least two hours per month on this issue and I really would love to bill them for my time," she said yesterday.

"It's more the annoyance because I have a very busy travelling schedule for work, which is why I set up direct debit in the first place, and the bigger risk is they could turn off my service while I'm overseas."

Ms Holley said call centre staff assured her each time that the problem had been fixed. "Then it happens again, but every time I phone they have no record of me having called about the problem previously. I shouldn't have to explain the entire problem to them over and over and over again."

Telstra's director of customer service and satisfaction, Jules Scarlett, yesterday said Ms Holley's case would be investigated urgently. [Isn't publicity wonderful?]

Complaints against Telstra fell from 31,255 in the three months to September last year to 21,270 in the three months to June, she said. Telstra's share of industry complaints had dropped from 51 per cent to 45 per cent during 2009-10. "But this number is still too high so we're focused on making the improvements needed to simplify our business and better serve our customer," she said.

Industry-wide, complaints about phone and internet services fell 6 per cent last financial year, ending a seven-year cycle of soaring complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman. The Ombudsman fielded 215,154 complaints from consumers in the year to June, down from a record 230,000 in 2008-09, according to confidential data provided to the industry.

Despite the fall, complaints have more than doubled in three years, and quadrupled in a decade. And as customers often complain about more than one problem - such as the failure to rectify an initial billing error - the number of issues totalled 481,418 in 2008-09.

ACMA has threatened to regulate unless the telco industry improves its customer service through the existing voluntary self-regulatory code of conduct.

More HERE

Telecommunications regulator tackles telcos over poor service

Telcos are threatened with binding standards as customers make four complaints every minute. And as the big gorilla of the industry, this applies particularly to Telstra

PHONE companies' slack service to customers is unacceptable and they need to "do much better".

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has warned it will impose binding standards for customer service unless the industry improves its self-regulatory code of conduct, The Australian reports.

Authority chairman Chris Chapman said the existing poor standard of customer service was unacceptable. Mr Chapman said telecom customers' "exasperation and frustration" was shown by the "unacceptable trend line" in consumer complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman.

The ombudsman has been receiving complaints about billing, faults and connections of landlines, mobile and internet services at the rate of 1850 issues every weekday - or nearly four per minute.

"The banks used to be like this, but have lifted their performance over the past 10 years," Mr Chapman said yesterday. "I'm saying to the telco industry, your time has come." The telcos' customer service "is unacceptable and they've got to do much better".

The telecommunications industry is reviewing its three-year-old consumer protection code, which will require ACMA's approval next year.

At the same time, Mr Chapman said, if ACMA chose to impose its standards on the industry, telcos could be penalised for poor service. "We will invoke a standard in the event the code didn't provide sufficient consumer safeguards," he said. The standard would "open up telcos to a whole raft of enforcement possibilities". There would be a dramatic increase and toughening of the sanctions that existed under the voluntary code, he said.

Mr Chapman condemned the industry for failing to enforce its existing code of conduct. And he called for a "paradigm shift" in the way telcos treat their customers. "At the moment there is a disconnect between the provisions of the code and the outcomes, and the outcomes aren't good enough," he said.

"The future communications environment is going to be even more complicated than in recent times. "The industry will have to be even more creative and clever in the way it looks after customers."

The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network said yesterday the telcos' existing industry code was "not worth the paper it's written on". "We need a commitment from the industry that it is prepared to comply with the code and issue public reports on its performance," acting chief executive Teresa Corbin said.

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Telstra fined $19m for blocking wholesale rivals

The claim that this was not deliberate is one of the biggest heaps of bovine dung that I have ever encountered

TELSTRA has been slapped with an $18.5 million fine for blocking its rivals from installing broadband equipment at its telephone exchanges.

An 18-month long federal court case came to its conclusion this morning after Justice John Middleton found Telstra contravened the Trade Practices Act and its carrier licence conditions on 27 occasions between July 2006 and April 2008.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission was seeking a fine of $34m to be imposed on the telco giant, alleging Telstra’s senior management ranks had knowingly conspired to deny its wholesale customers such as Optus and iiNet access to install equipment in seven lucrative metropolitan telephony exchanges.

Under standard obligations, Telstra is legally required to allow access to its telephone exchanges so that competitors can install equipment to provide new voice and broadband offerings for customers.

Justice Middleton found that no such conspiracy had existed. “I reject any suggestion that the contraventions occurred as a result of any implicit or express direction from the then chief executive of Telstra to all Telstra employees to make access to competitors difficult,” Justice Middleton said in his judgement.

Telstra admitted in July last year that it was guilty of misleading and deceptive conduct in denying competitors access to its copper network -- but said the breaches were a result of the "chaotic bureaucracy" of the business rather than a deliberate ploy to disadvantage its competitors.

The contraventions -- of which there were 30 separate alleged incidents -- carried a maximum penalty of up to $10m each but Justice Middleton gave Telstra a discount on each breach.

"I have also given a greater discount for cooperation, acceptance of responsibility and for voluntarily implementing a compliance program,” he said.

Telstra won't appeal the decision. The telco vowed to improve business processes.

"Since the start of the case, we have acknowledged that mistakes were made. We accept the judgment which has been handed down. We will not be appealing," a Telstra spokesman said.

"Since these events occurred, Telstra has taken proactive steps to improve our processes in this area, and more generally, to improve service to our wholesale customers.

"We have learned a lot as a result of this process and like many changes at Telstra, we are endeavouring to improve our performance."

He said Telstra had cooperated with the ACCC on its investigation and implemented improved monitoring, processes and training.

As a result, no new exchanges have been capped since April 2008, the spokesman said.

Despite Telstra's penalty the telco's rivals were not entirely pleased with the outcome and reiterated the need for the government to pass legislation aimed at curbing the telco's market dominance.

"This is an example of anti-competitive behaviour from Telstra that the Government’s reform package is designed to stop at its source," Optus director of Government and Corporate Affairs Maha Krishnapillai said.

"Telstra has a very real ability to act unfairly under the present regulatory system, however the damage is done long before Telstra faces any penalties for its actions."


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Regulator to get tougher on phone companies

Telstra abuses a big factor behind the change

TELEPHONE, mobile and internet providers will face hefty fines for breaching tough new customer service standards that will replace cumbersome voluntary industry codes.

Amendments to the Telecommunications Act will give the Australian Communications and Media Authority power to write consumer protection regulations and issue penalties of up to $250,000 for corporations and $50,000 for individuals in breach of the standards.

At the moment ACMA can issue infringement notices to broadcasters, but only has power to issue a formal warning to telecommunications companies before pursuing matters through the courts.

The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, said the changes would stem the flow of complaints made to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman; there had been a 118 per cent increase in customer service complaints last year.

The chairman of ACMA, Chris Chapman, said he would begin a formal inquiry into customer service in the telecommunications sector to "shine a strong light on complaints handling and the unresponsiveness of the industry to its customers".

He said codes developed by the industry took too long to develop and were cumbersome to change, leaving customers exposed to bad or deceptive service.

Telstra at work

An overzealous Telstra salesman nearly cost Sue Abbott, of Scone, $1400 after he convinced her to upgrade her mobile phone last year. But instead of the better deal she was promised, Ms Abbott promptly saw her bills double, including charges for a data plan she did not want or need.

Ms Abbott complained to Telstra, which caused her to run up even higher bills as she was "either left on hold or shipped around the world". "I would ring and try and explain my predicament and no-one listened. No one ever rang me back when I asked them to, or even offered to."

After a nine-month impasse, Telstra contacted Ms Abbott last week to say the charges would be erased from her account.

She said the inquiry was long overdue. "We're so in the dark about what the telcos can do," she said.

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Fleeing customers dent Telstra revenues

And it's no wonder customers are fleeing. Just ask almost any Telstra customer who has had problems with them

TELSTRA is unlikely to meet its current revenue forecasts, analysts have warned as they highlighted a decline in customer numbers as the company's biggest challenge.

Analysts and investors say declining customer revenue is a more significant threat to Telstra's long-term revenue than the proposed national broadband network. They are urging the company to cut retail prices to arrest customer attrition.

Telstra's cash flow was likely to be $400 million less than forecast this financial year, at $5.6 billion, a Goldman Sachs JBWere analyst, Christian Guerra, said in a research note.

His forecast is based on the decline in fixed-line customers and uncompetitive mobile and broadband plans. "The [first half of 2009-10 financial year] result highlighted some of the most concerning operating trends seen in Telstra's recent history," Mr Guerra said.

Its mobile phone plans were the least competitive, and its customer growth declined by 83,000 in the last six months last year. "Telstra's dilemma is clear. It does not want to lower its mobile pricing to accelerate the shift of high-margin traffic away from its fixed network and onto Australia's three mobile networks," Mr Guerra said.

Telstra's recent attempts to improve fixed and wireless broadband packages would slow customer attrition rates, but the prices were still uncompetitive, he added.

On December 18 Telstra warned sales revenue in 2009-10 would be lower than previously forecast because customers were leaving its fixed phone and broadband services faster than expected.

But the long-term trend was a more significant threat to Telstra's long-term profitability than the government's proposed broadband network, said a Perennial Growth partner, Richard Macdougall.

Institutional investors could expect Telstra's share price to weaken further if it does not make a deal with NBN Co, because that would add even more uncertainty to the company's future.

The government has threatened to forcibly split Telstra's retail network, divest its interest in Foxtel and deny it wireless spectrum if it does not migrate its fixed line traffic to the national broadband network.

Mr Guerra said a deal with the government was nearing and this could boost Telstra's share price.

Meanwhile, the Federal Court in Melbourne will hear a case this morning between Telstra and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on alleged breaches of the Trade Practices Act and Telecommunications Act.

The regulator alleges Telstra denied its competitors access to seven metropolitan exchanges to connect equipment to customer homes.

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UN-bl**dy-believable!

Telstra is steadily REDUCING its services to its Bigpond customers. First they cancelled the webspace they provided as part of a cable subscription deal. That was high-handed enough but they have now cancelled another service.

It was for years possible to access your Hotmail account via Outlook express. But no more. That option has been out of service for months but I thought it must be a result of something I had done. Not so. I eventually got around to emailing Bigpond technical support about it and below is the emailed reply that I got:

"We apologise for the inconvenience that you are experiencing and we understand your concern.

BigPond email accounts use the Post Office Protocol (POP3) protocol.

This protocol is incompatible with Hotmail. Hotmail uses a non-standard protocol for retrieving email, which is not compatible with all providers. Therefore, BigPond Technical Support does not support retrieving email using this method. However, we can refer you to one of our third party industrial partners called Gizmo. They support a wide range of products and services, including the issue that you are currently experiencing. Please be advised that they do charge a fee from a credit card however, will only do so if they fix your problem - if they are unable to then you won't be charged anything."

Do they run Gizmo? I wouldn't be surprised

letter to David Thodey, CEO, Telstra

Thank you for your response to my letter to you and Ms Livingstone. You did get me some high-class attention from your staff

Sadly, however, most of the problem persists. Your staff did find the conditions under which I COULD upload to a BigBlog photo gallery but they are rather mad. I can upload only if:

1). I use the IE8 browser

2). I have the latest version of Java loaded

There are MANY photo hosting sites on the net and NONE of them have those restrictions. The restrictions are pure BigPond brainlessness.

About a third of Australians use the Firefox browser for a start and that is excluded by your very limited facility

May I suggest that the BigPond programmers need new blood? Someone should be fired if they cannot even manage a photo uploading facility of normal usefulness

A typical Telstra experience

I too have got this sort of "service". One overseas helpline operator could not understand what I was saying at all so just hung up on me. Sheer arrogance. I should have been referred to someone higher up, preferably back in Australia

Like most horror stories, this one begins with an everyday setting where the familiar gradually gives way to the sinister. The first harbinger of the pain to come, not recognised at the time, was a letter sent out to me and millions of other Australians on July 20 by Ramon Gregory, "Executive Director, Customer Sales and Service", at Telstra, Australia's largest service company. This places Gregory at the centre of an enormous commercial machine, with huge databases, thousands of operators in call centres, and billions of customer inquiries recorded with Orwellian efficiency.

A study of the conditions in call centres conducted by Ruth Barton of RMIT University, released last week, found high stress levels and oppressive management control, as call centres field an average of 16 million calls a day.

Ramon Gregory's letter was also oppressive. It announced that people who paid their Telstra bill by return mail, or in person, or by credit card, would in future be charged a $2.20 "payment administration fee". He suggested various ways to avoid the fee, which actually did not avoid the fee at all. The letter was so infuriating and so poorly drafted that Telstra customers made their displeasure known in an outbreak of spontaneous combustion. Telstra rescinded the fee earlier this month.

But the company's latent aggression remains. Last Wednesday, my internet service was cut off by Telstra even though I have paid my bills on time, year-in, year-out, with a Telstra home phone account, and a Telstra cable account, and a Foxtel account. My bank statement shows Telstra banked my latest cheque on October 19. I had assumed I would be treated as a valued customer and notified before any drastic, summary action took place. How naive.

Telstra has shown, repeatedly, that it does not grasp the concept of political and consumer blowback. That's why the Rudd Government is destroying Telstra's market value, and why I have the Telstra support number, 133 933, programmed into my mobile phone, because losing service is part of the Telstra experience.

When I called Telstra's inquiry number at 9am last Wednesday, I got a "consultant" called Craig. When he turned out to be a drama queen, I began taking notes. When I suggested that Telstra should have contacted me before taking such draconian action, given my long history of reliability, Craig threw a tantrum. "You can't expect us to send out 50,000 notices to people," he said. Yes, I do. It's part of the service.

"You have to step up to the plate!" Craig replied. "It's your responsibility!" I asked him why he was treating me like a retard. He directed me to "credit management". I called credit management and got a message: "All our operators are busy. You have been placed in a queue." I was not surprised.

A heavily-accented young man came on the line and gave his name as "Matt". I realised I had been directed to a call centre in India when Matt insisted my name was not Sheehan. After he had called me "Mr Goodhope" three times I hung up.

The next operator was "Beau". He, too, was Indian, and simply not coherent. I politely abandoned the call and tried again. Next on the line was "Chari", another Indian. He was the first person I could describe as pleasant and competent that day. He set up a direct debit payment system for future bills, took care of the small outstanding amount, and thanked me for the call, the first of the five Telstra operators to do so. He said my service would be quickly restored.

It was not. It was still blocked the next day. And so the merry-go-round resumed. I was directed to technical support, because the billing department said there was no problem. A technician told me to switch off my modem and then try again. That did not work.

I called the original number again. Another heavily accented operator eventually responded. Her name was "Marie". "Are you in Australia?" I asked. "No," she replied. She told me I could not have my service restored because my account had not been paid. "You need to speak to the billing department." I told her I had spoken to the billing department at great length. She was adamant.

I called the billing department and Kirsty came on the line. She was working from a call centre on the Gold Coast. When I explained that she was the eighth person I had spoken to in two days, and my account was fully paid, she put me on hold and got someone further up the food chain. When she came back, she said the problem was a "shadow" payment system, which was showing my account to be inoperative. Kirsty was a pleasure to deal with, and restored my service.

The real problem was not the shadow payment system. It was the incompetent Indian call centre operators, and it was Telstra's attitude towards its customers. Nothing of my experience will show up on Telstra's key performance indicators.

And Ramon Gregory, it turns out, is yet another American brought in to run Australia's service giant. That explains his tin ear. I received another letter from him on Friday: "Telstra is reinventing the home phone," he proclaimed. He was selling an upgrade called the Telstra T-Hub. I'm interested in going in exactly the opposite direction - getting rid of the Telstra fixed line altogether. And that's just the start.

By the standards of global telco giants, Telstra is an efficient, productive enterprise, but you have to ask at what cost to us, the people who used to own the company, and are now the company's serfs?

SOURCE

Bungled computerization worsens service

TELSTRA chief David Thodey admitted at the company's annual general meeting today that the telco's multi-billion dollar IT transformation project had stymied its ability to change prices on its products.

The admission came as one angry shareholder lambasted the board for having broadband prices that were way out of whack with the market.

The shareholder said he was no longer a Telstra customer because of the high prices and the company’s policy of allowing excess data charges on some plans to be unlimited, rather than sharply cutting or ‘shaping’ data transmission rates when a customer exceeded their plan’s allowance.

Mr Thodey reiterated a statement made last week at the company's update for investors that broadband price cuts were imminent and said the company’s ability to chop and change price plans had been constrained by its transformation project that began back in 2005 under former CEO Sol Trujillo. “For 12 months we have been unable to put new prices in the market due to the transformation," said Mr Thodey.

The pricing problems have hurt the company’s ability to grow market share. Fixed-line internet sales growth dropped from 20.5 per cent last year to 13.3 per cent this year.

Broadband shoppers don’t have to do much digging to find broadband deals far cheaper than Telstra.

A broadband customer after a fast ADSL2+ link with a data allowance geared to heavy use would pay $99.95 a month under current Telstra pricing for a 25GB per month data allowance, shaped to 64K once the cap was broken. Competitors have been offering far sharper pricing. As an example, ISP TPG advertises an ADSL2+ link with a 90GB allowance for $89.99 a month, shaped to 256K if exceeded.

Source

Marathon gripe heading for Telstra AGM

A NSW man, tired of waiting more than eight years for a refund from Telstra, will confront the telco's annual general meeting in Sydney tomorrow to demand the issue be resolved.

Alastair Marshall has had little luck over the years but with a new Telstra boss onboard, he is feeling confident David Thodey could go where Sol Trujillo and Ziggy Switkowski would not.

More than two months ago Mr Marshall decided to air his grievances directly to Mr Thodey, who since taking the hot seat has pledged to focus on customer satisfaction.

Mr Thodey says he reads every customer complaint that lands on his desk.

Lengthy email correspondence between Mr Marshall and Mr Thodey, obtained by The Australian, reveals that the chief executive has personally intervened in the matter.

Since they both first communicated, however, discussions have reached a stalemate and Mr Marshall is frustrated that Mr Thodey has not been able to settle the matter.

The story began in January 2001 when Mr Marshall was trying to obtain a residential internet service to his home in the suburb of Hall, on the NSW-ACT border.

He was advised he would need a separate telephone line to connect to the internet.

After waiting and complaining to Telstra for more than 29 months, the company finally came to the conclusion that Mr Marshall did not require the extra line but still billed him for the service.

Subsequently, on August 6, 2003, Mr Marshall was offered a full refund of $1208, but there was a catch.

"We accepted the refund offer and agreed to Telstra's promise of our ISDN internet installation within 10 days," he said.

"However, Telstra said the amount would be given to us as credit. We paid them hard cash, so this was not acceptable."

It took nearly three years before the ISDN service was finally installed as "technical issues with the phone line and exchange" complicated matters, he said.

Mr Marshall then continued to push Telstra for a settlement and was offered $3560, but was told it also would be in the form of credit.

In 2006, when Mr Trujillo was at the helm, Telstra made an offer of $5000 to settle the matter, but the cheque never arrived, Mr Marshall said.

"After David Thodey became the new chief executive in June, he announced a new high priority for resolving customer problems. I thought this was a departure from the old mob," Mr Marshall said.

In mid-August, he raised his problems directly with Mr Thodey, who he described as "quite pleasant, humble and even apologetic" in their initial phone conversation.

By the end of August, Mr Thodey had made an offer of $8000 but that was rejected as inadequate.

"If you miss paying your Telstra account, within a week it's a $30 late fee plus a $20 administration fee and 22 per cent interest daily," Mr Marshall said, choosing to not to comment on an acceptable amount.

Mr Marshall has compiled copious amounts of documentation with Telstra and feels the offer is not fair, although Telstra begs to differ. "We have made a genuine effort to reach a fair outcome with Mr Marshall including offering him what most people would consider a very generous goodwill gesture back in August when David became personally involved," a Telstra spokesman said.

"We aim to resolve customer concerns as quickly as possible, but not all cases are black and white and in Mr Marshall's situation we feel we've exhausted all reasonable options."

Mr Marshall said he had been left with no choice but to pursue the matter at the AGM.

He continues to be a Telstra internet subscriber.

Source

Telstra to cut prices on broadband

All of the below is good to hear but colour me skeptical about its implementation

TELSTRA has flagged price reductions for its broadband products and services as it fights to maintain market share in the highly competitive sector.

Chief executive David Thodey said price cuts were "imminent" as the telco wanted to compete aggressively on broadband offerings. "In some parts of the market we've gone too far out of line and we need to come back," he told an investor briefing.

Telstra's most recent annual results showed a drop in fixed broadband takeup, but its wireless broadband revenue grew by 69.2 per cent to $587 million.

A strong focus of Mr Thodey's presentation to investors was improving customer service. "We must focus on our core business and our customers, this is where we create value for shareholders," he said.

"At its simplest, the next stage in Telstra's long-term strategy is to focus on satisfying customers, invest in new capabilities, and drive growth in new businesses."


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Telstra customers need to know this

ZERO is the hero which can give you back hours of your life by reducing time spent on hold by as much as 70 per cent.

Despite dwelling at the bottom of the keypad, it has been revealed that the humble 0 is at the top of the dial pile when it comes to fighting the dreaded automated phone "services".

It was in researching a cheat sheet to help readers beat interactive voice response (IVR) systems that The Daily Telegraph discovered the Power of None.

We found that when ringing Optus, pressing zero four times reduced the amount of time required to reach a real person to as little as 36 seconds.

By comparison, following the menu took more than two minutes. That's a time saving of 70 per cent.

The nought (dialled seven times) also stopped us getting caught on the line to St George, cutting the wait from over five minutes to 2 min 44 sec.

Whether it was AGL or the Commonwealth Bank, AAPT or Country Energy, "0" was the way to go if you simply wanted to speak to a human being.

The revelation is sure to anger big business and government, which have shelled out billions on systems seemingly designed to annoy the hell out of users.

But the real aim is to cut costs.

Minimising human contact keeps down customer service staff numbers, said Allan Asher, head of ACCAN, the telecommunications consumer organisation.

Cheat sheet

AGL: Press 0 three times

Centrelink: Press 0 at each prompt

Energy Australia: Press 0 then wait

Jetstar: Press 1 then 1

Telstra: Press 0 seven times

SOURCE

TO: CEO, Telstra

Dear Sir,

I have just spent about half an hour wending my way through the maze that is required for me to recharge my mobile prepaid A/c online. At the end this is the message I got:

Mobile Number: 044828xxxx

Thank you. Your Recharge has been successfully processed.

Date: 15-09-2009 12:07 PM
Telstra Pre-Paid Mobile Number: 044828xxxx
Receipt Number: 2582870354
Current Account Balance: $53.93
Credit Expiry Date: 26-11-2009

Why was I given only an extra two months to spend the money? The $30 option I selected should have given me a year. Please adjust it.

I have tried calling various Telstra help numbers but when I finally got through to an operator he said that there was nothing he could do.

I have in total wasted half of my morning on this

Yours disgustedly

Dr John Ray

Update 22 Sept.

I have just got a call from a PR person admitting that Telstra goofed but she had no idea why the fault occurred and seemed uninterested in finding out why until I threatened to raise the matter with the TIO. I extracted a promise for an investigation and follow-up letter.

Telstra will be forced to split by Government

Anything that cuts Telstra down to size sounds good to me -- JR

THE Rudd Government has introduced major changes to telecommunications laws, including the separation of Telstra. "Today we are delivering historic reforms in Australia's long term national interest," Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said this morning. "The Government will require the functional separation of Telstra, unless it decides to voluntarily structurally separate."

Telstra has been given the choice of voluntarily separating its infrastructure and retail arms in a manner approved by the competition watchdog.

If it chooses not to, the legislation will let the Government impose rules on the way it operates.

The rules include making sure Telstra charges other companies a fair price to access its network.

Telstra will also be prevented from moving into advanced wireless broadband unless it separates and divests its cable broadband and Foxtel assets. "These reforms will address Telstra's high level of integration to promote greater competition and consumer benefits," Senator Conroy said.

The changes, included in an update to the Telecommunications Act, will be tabled in Parliament today.

Senator Conroy said Telstra and the Government had already been in talks about the move. "Telstra are very constructively engaged in discussions with us already," Senator Conroy said. "They were very well prepared already when we had our first meeting."

The Government was flexible on how Telstra may choose to separate, he said. "The Government maintains an open mind on how structural separation may be achieved," he said. "It may include a new company Telstra that may transfer some of its fixed-line assets to."

Senator Conroy said previous governments of both persuasions had failed to address telecommunications reform. "The measures in this legislation will finally correct the mistakes of the past," he said.

Telstra has previously strongly resisted moves to separate its infrastructure and retail arms.

The new laws will also give more power to the competition watchdog and the communications minister to protect consumers and issue warnings to telcos. A new Universal Service Obligation will ensure "all people in Australia to have reasonable access on an equitable basis to standard telephone services".

It will also regulate the removal of payphones and include serious penalties – up to $10 million – for Telstra if it fails to comply.

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