Telstra is chasing your last centBy John RolfeThe Daily...

Telstra is chasing your last cent

By John Rolfe

The Daily Telegraph

March 25, 2009 12:01am
Telstra
Tight telco ...Telstra's inventive billing will help it to pay millions to outgoing CEO Sol Trujillo.

TELSTRA has resorted to charging customers in increments of one-tenth of a cent.

The ploy stands to reap millions of dollars in additional revenue for the nation's largest telco.

Telstra has more than eight million customers, generating revenue of more than $10 billion last financial year. On such a vast amount, even a 0.1 per cent increase adds $10 million.

Consumer groups are outraged.

"When you multiply this across their customer base, it becomes quite a substantial revenue stream," Choice's Christopher Zinn said.

"For Telstra, it's pennies from heaven."

Consumers' Telecommunications Network CEO Teresa Corbin said the move showed Telstra's desperation to push its bottom line.

"There needs to be some sort of investigation by the ACCC," she said.

But an ACCC spokesman said the watchdog had no role in what was a "commercial decision by Telstra".

Telecommunications analyst Paul Budde said when combined with other billing changes, such as charging in 30-second blocks rather than by the second, then "you are taking about huge amounts of money".

The changes have angered Telstra customer Peter Ardill, of Lisarow in New South Wales.

"They are paying out millions to the outgoing CEO Sol Trujillo but they are doing no favours to their loyal customers," he said.

Telstra spokesman David Luff initially said all providers charged to one-tenth of a cent and that it was linked to the GST.

But Optus said it did not, except for single SMS and MMS charges.

Mr Luff later said: "Many of our charges are charged in part cents and many usage-based services - such as internet-browsing - are charged in part cents."

"Displaying charges to three decimal places will assist customers in understanding how we round the bill to reach the total amount due.

"It is also important to note that the 'Total Due' is rounded to two decimal points."

http://www.news.com.au/business/money/story/0,28323,25239111-5017313,00.html