MELBOURNE, Australia-As the federal government’s push to sell its remaining stake in Telstra gains momentum, the Australian communications giant, in its submission to the Estens inquiry into regional telecommunications, has argued that a fund be established from sale proceeds to ensure the service quality of communications in the bush.
Telstra’s call comes after a flood of criticisms of rural phone services from regional residential and business users.
Last week, the Australian Communications Authority reported that Telstra is “on track” in delivering a range of service upgrades to about 40,000 remote services spread across 80 percent of Australia’s land mass. In particular, the report found that Telstra had installed 3,899 two-way satellite Internet services with rollout hoped to be completed by the end of the year.
