Epic Win: Australian Government to force wholesale separation of Telstra

The Australian Government has announced that it will force the wholesale separation of Telstra, Australia’s former monopoly, and still dominate communications company.

Stephen Conroy, best known outside of Australia for his moves to introduce Chinese style censorship, made the announcement this morning, saying that the reforms will promote greater competition and consumer benefits.

“The Government will require the functional separation of Telstra, unless it decides to voluntarily structurally separate” Conroy told the media. “The Bill will be tabled in the House of Representatives today.”

The decision to force Telstra to split is being made in conjunction with the Government’s moves to roll out a National Broadband Network.

Telstra, until the 1990’s the Government owned monopoly telecommunications provider was privatized as one entity, with Telstra maintaining ownership of the copper telephone network. The ownership of the network has meant that Telstra has maintained an unfair market position as both a retailer of phone services, and the owner of the wholesale network all phone companies must access to offer telephone and internet services to Australian homes and businesses.

The call doesn’t redeem the Government when it comes to censorship, but I know I won’t be the only one who thinks that finally the Australian Government has done something seriously right in the space, something that the last Government should have done years ago.