Telstra Corp, Australia’s largest telephone company, may consider acquisitions to bolster growth after reaching agreement with the government’s NBN Co on the closure of its copper-wire network.
Acquisitions may include companies with experience in so-called cloud computing, chief executive officer David Thodey said in an Australian Broadcasting Corp interview televised yesterday. Cloud computing lets users access data and services on external servers.
Telstra agreed on June 20 to surrender its copper-wire network and shift customers to the NBN fiber platform that will be built during the next eight years, meeting government demands it separate its fixed-line assets from the units that sell to customers.
The Melbourne-based company will receive about A$11 billion (US$9.5 billion) in compensation for the move, which also avoids penalties including a ban on acquiring new airwaves for next-generation mobile services.
“We’ll keep expanding our product portfolio out, but there are new opportunities coming along that may provide opportunities for us to do acquisitions,” Thodey said. “It’ll be more about acquiring capability than sort of bolt-ons.”
The non-binding NBN agreement announced last week still needs to be approved by Telstra’s 1.4 million shareholders and regulators, with Thodey expecting to have a more detailed proposal by the time of its annual investor meeting in November.
The agreement, which may cost as much as A$43 billion to build, gives the fiber company access to the trenches and ducts that house the copper wires.
Thodey expects to lose market share in Australian fixed-line services, which currently sits at about 76 percent as a result of Telstra owning the only existing national network.
“As people migrate off copper to fiber it will be a very competitive world and we probably wouldn’t hold 76 percent,” he said.
Closing the copper-wire network will cause “cultural change” at Telstra as more of its earnings come from retail services, Thodey said.
He plans to increase spending on sales and marketing to win customers for phone, Internet and mobile services.
“We’ve got to re-orientate it to the customers, we’ve got to find ways to delight customers and that’s what we are going to focus on,” Thodey said. “I don’t underestimate this, it will probably take another three, four, five years, but it’s another stage for the company.”
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique