Not that I like Conroy in any way.But this entire mess is...

Not that I like Conroy in any way.
But this entire mess is Howard's fault.
The initial privatisation of Telstra was stuffed up when they failed to separate the operational (infrastructure) and retail arms of Telstra.

There cannot be true competition when one company controls all the infrastructure and can blackmail the market (i.e. Telstra).

Further, Howard did nothing to improve the infrastructure during his term and sold off government assets left right and centre. Now we are reaping the fruit of his abysmal short-term management.

The other party to blame for this is Sol, who drove down the Telstra share price early to get a good price on his options, and then left early with a big bonus after completely destroying Telstra's reputation with the general public and the government. Sol's US honchos tried to blackmail the government as they would in the US, but soon realised this is not the US. Telstra management is just as complicit in this rapid share price fall.