Having published an Australian telecoms newsletter named “Exchange” for over 20 years, I’d have to say you have chosen a great name

Good to see Telstra returning to the blogosphere! Looking forward to some great debates

Cheers,

Renai LeMay
News Editor
ZDNet.com.au
Twitter: @renailemay

I eagerly await the next installments of the “Telstra Proud” series.

Hopefully this will be Telstra’s turning point and Telstra will start listening NOT talking.

I would love to see Telstra take a look at a corporate restructure of their wholesale and Retail businesses. This will give their Shareholders a better view of what part of the business is truly the money maker. It will also enable shareholders to mark the retail business against other ISPs. I dislike the government intervention but believe something does need to be done in this area for great transparency. If Telstra can lead the charge I’m sure they can move it in a better direction for their shareholders. BT in England are a good example of this.

hmmm… yet another way for telstra to shove there propaganda into peoples faces….

good job telstra… hope you change your attitude somewhat with the new forums

Forgive me for being skeptical but i can’t help it given Telstra’s track record.

Are you guys her to listen, or are you just trying to convey that image for a bit of PR benefit?

People i know pay a ridiculous amount for Telstra services, and there appears to be no end in sight.

Lets pick a few ‘random’ items.

Caller ID.
Common guys, are you telling me it really costs 6 bux a month to offer this?
It is pretty clear the technology is in place, and it aint rocket science, how bout just giving it and stop gouging us for it?

ADSL1.
A tech that has always been capable of ~ 8mbit down / 1mbit up.
Why do you continue to insist on breaking it up into different product?
Your offering ADSL2 now (capped @ 20mbps) without breaking that into different offerings.
Why continue to pretend there are about 5 or 6 different types of ADSL1 ?
It looks to me you’re just trying to justify charging more for the same thing, a little faster.
And what’s with the 384k upstream cap?
Makes VOIP a little more difficult to keep working clearly.
Oh, that’s right, you don’t want us using VOIP.
That’s why you disabled it in the firmware of your home gateways.
If Telstra are going to continue to discourage these technologies I’ll continue to shop elswhere.

It would be good to see Telstra come to the party and offer some seriously compeditive services and work with us, not against us.

I could pull many more examples, but i think i’ve made my point.

Frustrated.

as above

I commend Telstra’s new focus on listening to customers to find out what they want, instead of relying on the so-called World’s Best Practice process of relying on its marketing gurus’ interpretation of what customers need.

The worst recent example of the latter resulted in the recent legal stouch between Apple and Palm over access to the former’s music and media store iTunes. Apple won but only because Palm had been totally wrong on the issue the whole way through – possibly as a consequence of being broke and facing deadlines in getting their phone going. The tragedy is that loyal Palm customers who were looking to the company to support their old T5 personal organisers are left lamenting. All they want is a state-of-the-art personal organiser and they are utterly indifferent as to whether or not it can link to any other device for information downloads.

The sooner major players in the information industry come to the realisation that they should let the customer lead in formulating development strategies the better. That Telstra is leading the charge is the best news I’ve heard since the company foolishly wrapped itself in moral indignation and took on a government that, whatever its political stripe, seems to have had little regard for commercial ethics.

Congratulations on the new forum and the opportunity for interested people to present opinions.

As a person who attended the AGM today I present my thoughts about the Meeting.

The format was excellent with the presentation of the Telstra Directors to the audience well accepted. The new Chairperson and CEO did an excellent job and were very informative and answered all questions in a clear and concise manner. The aspect that was most obvious was shareholder insistance that while Telstra should endeavour for a win, win outcome for the negotiation with the Government concerning NBN they (shareholders) were adament that if Telstra cannot get fair and reasonable renumeration for any assets sold into the NBN then talks must be halted and hostilities against the Government begin for a fair go for Telstra..

Firstly, to get on my good side you must release the prices for the new plans immediately. This will allow me to contemplate whether or not I will move to Telstra. The longer you hide this details, the more disgruntled I become.

Congratulations for the launch simultaneously with the excellent AGM in the comfort of my lounge.

Great work.

Congratulations to the Telstra team for making this site happen. Good to see your commitment to listening to your customers.

Looking forward to observing this site progress

All the best,
- David

It’s funny with the comments of Telstra Customer Service is appalling and they are Expensive.

Well after being a customer of 18 years and over the years getting problems resolved and the latest problem took 3 months I had to resort to the TIO.

I’m sorry to say will never use telstra again unless they actually have real service and become competitive with Mobile and especially internet for the current and future climate ie Data allowances, your biggest/expensive plan 60 gig is a joke with the media/interactive offerings.

Tel$tra Become a leader not a burden to your customer$ and Australia

The Telstra Exchange Website is ideal for bouncing off ideas and suggestions. It is already happening and I sincerely welcome the site will be doing my part from time to time on important issues and matters

In all this debate there has been little or no debate about the most important dimension. Cost. This has always been a problem with Telecom and then Telstra and then the private Telstra. The customer is paying too high a price for communication services. This is a consumer product and should be priced accordingly.

Can we change the debate from customer service (this will always be a problem for any Telco). Change debate from download speeds and technical gadgets. Lets get reasonable tarrifs in place and then Telstra would be providing value to the community

-Lester

Dear david

I have just got off the phone after 1 3/4 hours trying to sort out a Telstra Bill.I have spoken to Justin (was cut off),Obi,Stacy,Daniel,Jess,Taronga,Fayes and lastly Tari over an amount of $60 we believe we don’t owe you after we transferred lines and bigpond to another business.No wonder people hate telstra.

David I live in the Victorian town of Ouyen & I have done a lot of research into ADSL2+ internet & I am very disappointed that our exchange is not enabled for ADSL2+ & yet smaller towns such as Kaniva & Wycheproof are, I contacted Telstra Countrywide about this issue & they said that it would be a major tech job to upgrade our exchange so we could get high speed internet which is actually cheaper to the consumer. Could you please upgrade more of the rural exchanges including ours so we can get ADSL+ internet & put this in Telstra’s budget for next year.

David,
Wow…the billing system was bad in 1990 and is still attempting to be replaced…why have you got two billing systems which confuse the c..p out of everybody (customers and staff alike), Bigpond is different to Telstra??
And why does Telstra penalise customers who stick with them by giving away specials to those who jump (sorry churn) between companies just to make the numbers look good…why not give loyalty points and dollars to those who make it through a number of years and give something back…even if it were in the next period or year….???
I reckon I am a 44 year customer!!

Communications is always changing and experience built up must be used. Standards and Guidelines are needed.
Too many are wanting to get rid of them and use anything that works now, like wireless and IT products everywhere. One day soon it will crash in a big heap.
( Comment was passed on TV that they were suspect the BIG race MELBOURNE CUP could of had a false start due to wireless gadgets at Flemington having interference )

We need a service to show people the ideal FUTURE HOME as far as communications is concerned and how everything can be connected together. That they can see how Telstra Lead-In cable connection should be. ( Not left as a afterthought )
A service to show how customers with a present service, can improve it, by ones who have experience and understanding.
What I mean is people having a new home built can prewire the home to a standard that will benefit them in the future with telephone, internet, payTV, etc Cabling systems that will take the services of the future. Wired in a way that makes maintenance and changes very easy in the future. House built for the future. Testing of cables would be easy too. Just installing wireless devices will bring problems that will be very difficult for the normal family to solve.

The government should of done it but where is it?
But PLEASE have people do the work who FULLY UNDERSTAND IT not the theory ones who think they know and NO NOT. They have been around for over 40 years. We had a stage where they lost some influence but it has changed again.

I am NOT AGAINST WIRELESS but it should NOT be used as a quick cheap today solution to a problem. It will come back.

SERVICE.
We need Assistance to people who have problems NOT CHARGING THEM through the roof for it or telling the customer to contact a communication contractor to assist AT WHAT COST!
I had a problem and with my understanding and technical experience I was able able to get it fixed at no extra cost to myself. But a normal customer would of had problems. The Telstra field staff appeared to fix a problem in the street but did not say so, only to say it was going to cost more.

SERVICE PROVISION to VERY REMOTE and DIFFICULT AREAS does cost a lot and returns from there will never pay the cost. PMG/Telecom/Telstra have always supplied this cost from the more profit City areas. Some even on this blog want this STOPPED. Who is going to PAY!!!!!!
The NBN will have the same problems as above.

The NBN can only be built by a NON-SPLIT TELSTRA operating in the install stage like the old TELECOM with a PREACTIVE approach and using communications experience.

Syney, 44 years of sterling, worry free service, is my experience.

Telstra are in the process of reviewing rates and improving their service for the good, bad & ugly.

Here’s a copy/paste from my ZDNet comment 4/11 –

…I agree Renai and have applauded Mr. Thodey many times for his conciliatory, commonsense and human approach (although it strangely always seems to go unnoticed by some)!

Now if these same handful of supporters and/or shareholders (who refuse to notice), the ones still living beneath that Trujillo rock, would stop undermining Mr. Thodey and the new improved Telstra at every turn, we could stop disliking Telstra.

And guess what, that, along with a solid agreement on the NBN and sans uncertainty, their precious shares may actually pick up?

Unfortunately however, these particular individuals are simply too burned (lost too much in share value) and frankly too stupid to look forward instead of back and comprehend what Mr. Thodey has already and is still achieving.

Unfotunately too, their Trujillo like egos and financial position relating to TLS, dictates that they will (along with one particular, likeminded official Telstra spokesman) soon infiltrate the new blog and make it NWAT (greed haven) 3….{END}

Looking above the rot has already begun, eh Syd and Vasso…

There’s mention in the above comments about Telstra listening. Telstra please listen to this.

Labour’s 2007 Federal election policy states: “Labour will ensure that Telstra’s wholesale and retail functions are clearly distinct within the company.”
This Labour Party snuck in to power with help from Telstra shareholders who thought they would give this great Australian company a fair go. They snuck in pretending to be “economic conservatives”.
This is generally a conservative country and we now have a good idea of what this Socialist Government is made of.

I don’t know about all the other shareholders, but my hope is that Telstra will take action for the rights of all Australians and stand up to the bully tactics being used by this Labour Party.

Labour had (and can still have) a unique chance to do something great for Australia. Some of their ideas sound really good. Take FTTH for instance. How good does that sound for Australia? But just look at the methods of achieving it – government blackmail, threats and coercion backed up by draconian legislation. Why? Labour were well and truly on side with Telstra in 2007 (remember all the political campaigning Telstra did for them). Telstra could have brought their FTTH dreams to reality quickly, efficiently and painlessly. So why did they choose to use confrontation? Beats me!

I think it now boils down to Telstra or the Federal Labour Party. While Labour insists on this confrontationist stance both are headed for damage (and probably fatal damage to one).

Telstra – as a shareholder; as a voter; I am willing to support a firm opposition to Labour’s current plans to establish its NBNCo. Even to the extent of losing all shareholder value. I believe this fight is that important for Australia.
If you can hold out until next election we might be able to give you a hand in the battle.

Please enable iPhone tethering. You are losing money because I (and many of my IT collegues) had it running via unsigned carrier profiles, but after the last firmware update this is no longer possible. I reduced my datapack from 5GB to 300MB. I also have a seperate SIM & router, but this is not always with me.

PLEASE!

@ PRR, I agree with all that. I responded earlier to Senator Barnaby Joyce’s newletter as follows:

Dear Senator Barnaby Joyce,

Congratulations. You seen to be scoring on Rudd’s ETS folly. Here is what he had to say about you.

” the fearmonger in chief” Courtesy:

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-war-gets-personal-for-rudd-20091106-i24u.html

As regards to Telstra, I concur with your view that, “The Telstra issue is due to come before the Senate soon and although I believe it should be separated, it’s how it’s done that is the real issue. Any restructure should ensure that Telstra is obliged to commit itself to the provision of reasonable access to telecommunications services on an equitable basis for all Australians including those of us who live and work in rural and regional Australia.”, but I am at a complete loss to understand how on earth will the breaking up of Telstra help the company to provide the telecommunications you wrote about. Moreover, In a report by Glenda Korporaal and Rebecca Urban, Australian IT dated October 31, 2009 Catherine Livingstone is reported to have said “We were disappointed in the legislation in the sense that we don’t see a need for it because Telstra, including myself and David Thodey, have been constructively engaged in discussions,” she says. “We have said we support the government’s NBN vision. That vision would effectively involve the structural separation of Telstra because the NBN company would become the wholesaler for the whole industry. But we don’t think legislation is necessary. It is much better that we go through these constructive discussions and achieve a mutually beneficial outcome.”

Nota Bena: “We have said we support the government’s NBN vision. That vision would effectively involve the structural separation of Telstra because the NBN company would become the wholesaler for the whole industry.” This proves, without a shadow of doubt, that the legislation is a sham to help NBN Co intimidate Telstra to cede its Assets below the reasonable value as prescribed by our constitution and if the Senate pass the bogus legislation it will do a disservice to the company, its employees, customers, shareholders, retirement benefits funds, managed funds and our system of government.

Kind Regards

Vasso Massonic