bad news for telstra real bad news for nbn?

Telstra shareholders, once again, are battered by seemingly bad news from TLS Management on revenue, also from the growing NBN threat.

The flat spot on the telcos revenue is mainly due to costs and limitations of its ageing copper network; something anticipated some years ago, also now disrupted by those ongoing lengthy negotiations over the proposed NBN.

But it seems what is slight bad new for Telstra -is real bad news for the NBN Co.
(see article below).

Added to this is the ABC interview with Associate Professor of Law, Frank Zumbo,
the other night; in which he intimated that the Governments NBN Legislation, reference Telstra, is fundamentally flawed.

Yes, we Telstra shareholders live in interesting times.


Article by JENNIFER HEWITT for todays AUSTRALIAN

Telstra bad news on sales growth has spelt bad news for the business case for the national broadband network.

Telstra said yesterdav that it expected revenue to be "flattish" rather than growing this year. Key reasons include "an accelerated move to wireless only homes".

That means more households are choosing mobile broadband rather than fixed broadband and using mobiles rather than Telstra's traditional and highly profitable fixed lines.
And that is going to make it even harder to persuade those households to pay for a new fibre network as well.

The government argues that despite the convenience of wireless, a fibre network offering up to 100 megabits per second will provide superior speed and service to 90 per cent of Australian homes and businesses. It insists the two networks will be complementary rather than competitive. But that would require widespread consumer willingness to pay for both.

Many homes and businesses can already get much higher broadband speeds over cable or on wireless than they are willing to buy.
Yet the government's insistence that NBN Co must operate on a commercial basis means the new service will not offer its faster speeds any more cheaply.

NBN Co and Telstra, under pressure from Canberra, are still negotiating how to build the network but this will be a lengthy process.
Meanwhile, wireless is improving all the time -- and customers are voting with their phone bills.