sol.s report card discussed at ftth roundtable

At the FttH Roundtable on Wednesday (tomorrow) I will provide an update on where I believe Telstra’s FttN plans are going and I do expect fireworks soon!



If Sol truly wants to leave behind a legacy of good leadership, there is still time to act and change his rearguard tactics to a frontal assault. So watch his first anniversary speech. His contribution to date has been a whole lot of grandstanding, bullying and shouting; however the financial results of this have been disastrous, and there haven’t been any business results either.



If Sol is serious about the future he will have to address the issues mentioned above. I assume that he knows his business and so I called Telstra’s bluff when, earlier this year, he announced that he will not implement his visionary plan unless he gets the regulatory environment he wants.



While several financial analysts and media commentators are saying that he will now move, I already said, six months ago, that Telstra was bluffing and that they have no other choice than to implement NGN and FttN. If they don’t, they will simply be left behind by the strength of new media, convergence and competition.



I don’t think that Sol is a fool and I therefore believe that while all the bluffing was going on he was starting to implement his strategies – and, according to my calculations, the company is now about ready to move into the high-speed broadband market, based on ADSL2+.



At the same time, or not long after that, they will launch very aggressive triple play packages (ASDL2+, VoIP and IPTV).



Only a strategy like this could possibly produce an increase in Telstra’s broadband retail market share, beyond the 43% it now holds. Its current price-war-based competition strategy is running out of steam, and that alone will not enable it to increase its market share any further.



I have been predicting this development for close to six months now, and I hope the competitors are also ready with their triple play offerings, so they can cope with competition from Telstra.



With Telstra soon to be forced onto a level playing field with its competitors my wish for Telstra and all the other players is: May the best company win. Increasingly, however, winning will come from innovative new services and good quality customer service, something we have been starved of in Australia for far too long.

PAUL BUDDE Communication Pty Ltd,
T/As BuddeComm
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