Actually Telstra as a business is under serious siege, between its issues of regulation by Government and the constant onslaught of its competitors who niggle away at margins. I have no doubt that its asset base is superb, but if you look at the retail side the new entrants are eating its lunch on the ISP and fixed line calls business, and the mobile side is only ahead because of its better wireless network. I dont know much about the financials of the commercial telecoms area but my mates at Macquarie Telecoms used to specialise in undercutting Telstra and generally attacking its client base. Long term Telstra will stay the market leader but as an investment I havent a clue what its going to do - certainly last couple of quarters havent been that flash and the market has hammered it.
Personally I would crawl through broken glass before signing up to a telstra contract after the treatment I have had from them in the past - they have a long way to go to rebuild their customer service.
With respect to the email, I believe that the guy who wrote it has good technical knowledge and no political axe to grind. For Labor to push the NBN without a cost benefit analysis is just madness.
