Ok gasman, I've done a bit of digging and have a few points to...

Ok gasman, I've done a bit of digging and have a few points to cover...

I think I may have disregarded the possibility of an Ann under the AVG banner when I think petunia or zehav bought this up last week, mainly for the reasons stated in my earlier post...
Ive done a little research today and have a slightly different view...

I don't think ballantines project will impact on pie to any great extent it sounds as though His division is mainly aimed at keeping customers happy, on the street and online, which I guess could have some merit with pies web phone replacing pay phones...

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TELSTRA'S new customer service boss Gordon Ballantyne has attacked the telco's complex bureaucracy as a key obstacle to keeping disaffected customers and winning new business.

Mr Ballantyne said the company had to build a culture of "getting it right on the first call" with customer inquiries and said a plan to streamline operations was part of an overall push to cast aside its notoriously poor service reputation.

"With some divisions some customers still get lost in the system," he said.

"We have to manage that more consistently."

Mr Ballantyne was yesterday named Telstra's chief customer officer.

The former Hewlett Packard UK executive, who has been with Telstra a year, will head the company's newly combined sales and customer service divisions from next month. Mr Ballantyne said cutting service duplication, that emerged out of the company's older structure as an engineering company, would help.j

"There is great work being done in these divisions, but we are not necessarily leveraging in all parts of the business," he said.

Revealed by Telstra chief David Thodey yesterday, the overarching sales and service division will be the biggest within the telco and was designed to "sharpen the company's focus on the customer".

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I think the AVG division could however play a strong roll in how a venture between pie and telstra would be pitched in the public arena....


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And group managing director of Telstra business Deena Shiff will head a new division, called the Applications and Venture Group.

Mr Thodey said Ms Shiff's division will seek partnerships with private enterprise and government to "provide a new range of digital services for business and consumers, including in health and education".

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Mr Thodey also announced the creation of an Applications & Ventures Group (AVG) to spearhead Telstra's investment in new and emerging high-speed broadband businesses.
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Mr Thodey said that the AVG will invest and partner with other companies and government agencies at the forefront of innovation to provide a new range of digital services for business and consumers, including health and education.

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A JV with pie and telstra would be fitting under the AVG banner and would compliment the aspirations of the group in partnering with companies at the forefront of innovation....
And is it me or have I heard that quote ( or similar) somewhere before....?
(Milne) Yep the quote that has plagued my mind for the last few months...

In summary, I think a partnership and marketing campaign between pie and telstra could well be Ann under the wing of this new AVG division, and it would be a smart move by telstra IF they do take pie on to really push the web phones through this AVG division...

Things are aligning nicely at this stage with a the improved USO funding and associated reform, this new AVG division within telstra promoting partnerships with local companies at the forefront of innovation (AVG), all the major holders of pie a comfortable with their holdings,( it really is a tightly held stock), and the management team is of a very high calibre, that surely can hold their own at the negotiating table... Things are looking good...

Even if it is testing the resolve of a few holders!!!