Michael Peters, UNSW
(Episode 333; 18 minutes 45) Senator Conroy announced sweeping telecommunications reforms this week (see Telstra Shareholders Urged Not to Panic).
Telstra is being encouraged to separate itself into two different structures – one providing retail services and the other managing the wholesale infrastructure. If it doesn’t volunteer the split then the Telecommunications Act will be used to force a functional separation and deny access to new 4G services bandwidth.
Michael Peters, a business law lecturer at the Australian School of Business, says this is another example of failed competition law. He says privatized entities are getting away with a lot, because the government is loathe to use existing legislation to control the behaviour of some of these infrastructure owners.
In todays BTalk Australia he also expresses a concern about the signal that Conroy’s actions will have on overseas investors. Could it show that the Australian government doesn’t always keep its word?
Tell us what you think in the Talkback section at the end of this post.
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