timber1956,Telstra paid dividends under instructions from...

timber1956,

Telstra paid dividends under instructions from different Governments to enable them to get big dollers from the T1,2&3 sale processes.. Alas, the successions of special dividends that should never have been paid..

They have no choice at the moment than to continue these dividends, so the share price is not totally destroyed and the public that were sucked in by the Government, were not taken down with the share price.. If the Government and the ACCC left the company alone to run the business for all their stake holders, not for their competitors, and increase their business & their revenue, then these high dividends would be justified on fundamental alone..

Telstra have not reinvested into their fixed lines since, because they would have being forced by the Government, AKA as the ACCC, to give acccess to their competitors at under cost.. They did however invest in their mobile network, the best in the world, because it was not regulated..

The market should set wholesale prices not beauracrats.. If it were not for them, we would already have fibre networks instead of the current copper one, at a fraction of the cost of the NBN..