Australian government tells Telstra to split up... or else

Filed under: Telstra

Australian giant Telstra is being given the ol' Ma Bell treatment this week, getting slapped with a breakup order courtesy of the government with a steep penalty for failing to comply: blockage from future spectrum acquisitions and a forced sell-off of its cable television business and its 50 percent stake in satellite operator Foxtel. We're no MBAs around here, but that certainly seems like a strong-enough motivator to get moving on a logical breakup of Telstra's many businesses, including Australia's largest wireless provider (and largest everything, come to think of it). As a final warning, there's a threat of a AUD $10 million (about $8.6 million) fine for anti-competitive misbehavior, so all things considered, Optus and Vodafone should be feeling pretty good about the situation at the moment.

[Thanks, John]

Australian government tells Telstra to split up... or else originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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