Fault Pressure On Telstra In Sale Ploy
The Age
Wednesday July 17, 2002
Canberra
Telstra will be forced to reveal its 100 worst-performing telephone exchanges every month under new Federal Government rules to measure its service standards.
In the latest move to win support for the full sale of Telstra, Communications Minister Richard Alston announced what he said was a world-first system to judge Telstra's telephone repair and installation services.
``Consumers will have increased confidence that where there are multiple faults in an individual telephone line, they will be fixed speedily," he said.
``I think it will provide yet another assurance of increasing quality of service and improved reliability through the fixed network throughout Australia."
Senator Alston said Telstra could face fines of up to $10 million for repeatedly poor service.
A new three-tier system will force Telstra, as the provider of the universal telephone service, to provide performance reports to the Australian Communications Authority. One measure will rank the 5090 telephone exchange service areas each month. Senator Alston said those with the poorest service would be investigated and improved.
A second measure will be based on the 48 field service areas. It will assess the availability of services and the percentage of services with no faults.
The third plank will monitor the 7.7 million residential and small business telephone customers. Telstra must report how many had more than three faults in any 60-day period and how many had more than four faults in any 12-month period.
Opposition communications spokesman Lindsay Tanner and Democrats spokeswoman Lyn Allison said the new reporting system was a gimmick.
Mr Tanner said: ``The only guarantee of adequate telecommunications service levels in Australia is the continued majority ownership of Telstra."
A cabinet meeting in Sydney on July 30 will map out the government's strategy for selling the public's 50.1 per cent stake in Telstra. The plan is expected to include an inquiry to assess service levels - a prerequisite the government has set to proceed with the sale.
The National Party is battling with cabinet hardliners for a sizeable share of sale pro-ceeds to be used for ``nation-building projects" such as roads and other infrastructure for regions.
The government has directed a small part of the proceeds from its previous two Telstra sell-offs to the environment and improving communications services, but most of the money has been used to pay off Commonwealth debt.
National Party leader John Anderson said yesterday he believed a compromise would be struck. ``The Prime Minister and I have had some preliminary discussions about that. We're finding fruitful ground," he said.
Opposition Leader Simon Crean said the National Party would be better served by persuading the government to use Telstra's dividends for infrastructure spending because it would last forever.
© 2002 The Age
