Australian government delays Telstra breakup

It looks like the Australian government's drive to divide its incumbent service provider Telstra into two separate units serving wholesale and retail services won't happen this year. A Telecom Paper article citing a report from The Australian, said that the country's senate simply ran out of time to debate the new proposed regulations and now they will be put on hold until the Australian parliament meets again in February. This latest announcement contrasts Australian Communications minister Stephen Conroy's assertion that the new legislation would have gone into law before Christmas.

In related news, Telstra launched a company-wide restructuring of its own that it says will enable it to target new growth markets, enhance innovation and provide a better experience for customers. This new strategy, as outlined by Telstra’s CEO David Thodey to investors and shareholders, will create four main functional groups: customer-facing units, product-based business units, a new operations unit and corporate support units in addition to a new international division called Sensis and Telstra wholesale. In this process, Telstra will divide its product suite into two groups: PSTN, fixed broadband, BigPond & Media that will be run by Justin Milne and then wireless data, applications and services that will be run by Philip Jones on an acting basis.

For more:
- see this Telecom Paper article on the legislation
- Telecom Paper also has this article on Telstra's changes

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