Way to go Telstra ,Thodey is turning out to be a real asset ....

Way to go Telstra ,Thodey is turning out to be a real asset .

Telstra to switch focus to customers
LUCY BATTERSBY
June 28, 2010


TELSTRA will consider acquiring companies with product development and software capabilities as it reorientates itself away from telecommunications engineering to focus on customer services and digital households, chief executive David Thodey said yesterday.

''We will keep expanding our product portfolio out, but there are new opportunities coming along that may provide us with opportunities to do acquisitions,'' he said in an interview with ABC television.

''It is about acquiring capabilities rather than bolt-ons.''
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Mr Thodey said that while Telstra had a ''great engineering culture'', this would be irrelevant once the national broadband network was built because Telstra would no longer have a telephone network to maintain. Instead, the company could focus on developing products like cloud computing (internet-based systems) and household products like the T-box.

''We have got to become a sales and marketing-led company - customers at the centre of everything we do.

''So we have got a big cultural change to go through.

''For years we have had regulation on us, and the great opportunity we have now is to put that behind us and move forward.'' The deal had ''freed up'' Telstra, and reduced capital and operational expenditures, Mr Thodey said, adding that shareholders would continue to see a similar return on equity.

Last week Telstra and NBN Co announced a $9 billion deal to giving NBN Co access to Telstra's telecommunications infrastructure, and to migrate Telstra's fixed-line customers on to NBN Co's fibre network.

An additional $2 billion from the government would retrain Telstra staff and go towards setting up a company to deliver the Universal Services Obligations, previously performed by Telstra.

Meanwhile, NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley said the government could expect to get higher returns from its investment in NBN Co because of the deal struck last week.

''There is obviously a net improvement to the business case and a net improvement to the returns to the government by doing the deal, otherwise we simply would not have done it,'' he told ABC television.

Mr Quigley also said the national network would cost less than $43 billion, but at least $26 billion as estimated by the implementation study.

Source: The Age