Whether or not Telstra or anyone else providing comms infrastructure in Australia has the customer's interests foremost IS highly questionable.

I have had my share of everything from the downright appalling to the excellent. Setting aside the corporate mantras for a moment, telecomms and associated business has become so complex that even the staff cannot cope. The "excellent" above was when I struck one of the able and willing folks at the end of a long telephone conversation (some of which was a computer voice) After I learned how to shunt that to where it belongs (the bin) I was helped. That's pure luck. There is no comparison whatever with a forward looking retail business like Apple.

Lastly, a Telstra insider who had responded to a series of complaints about Next G reception invited me to come in personally to an inner sanctum and pick an alternative phone. At the same time, I asked him why there was zero Next G service in a particular area. The answer was simple and frank. Telstra does not wish to install more infrastructure in the area... but here's a tip he said. Switch your phone off. Wait, re-start and you'll almost certainly pick up a mining company cell phone service. And this on one of WA's busiest remote highways. Pure luck again.

In the area in which I live, Telstra has been promising to install a 3G tower for over 2 years. Without it, there is no Telstra mobile reception in our town since they canned the CDMA service.

As it happens, I sell mobile phones. However, I refuse to stock phones locked to the Telstra network until they install the infrastructure they need to work, because I got sick and tired of fielding legitimate customer complaints on Telstra's behalf.

In my business, we no longer deal with Telstra for our landline, Internet or mobile services, due entirely to their appalling service. We changed to iiNet, whose service has been close to faultless for 18 months now.

You're right Yabby the program pretty much repeated what we already knew only with a direct focus on Timberwolf and hedge funds.

My husband and I have a mobile phone with two different companies (Telstra and Optus) and we are often amazed at how often one or both of us lose reception, sometimes only four hours away from Sydney or two from Canberra, hardly the back of Bourke.

Thank you everyone for responding.

The issue wasn't really the "gorilla" per se. This was just an example of how the conflicting principals of corporations. I don't believe for a moment that The Big T would loose money by offering me market rates on ADSL2. They simply know that they have too they can and will swamp me if I try to assert the little market power I have.
The court records are full of corporations unsuccessful actions to defend their heavy handed/dubious tactics .

The bigger a corporation gets the less concerned it become about the individual.

Yabby's convenient memory ignores the endless lists of businesses and individuals who have suffered unnecessarily at the hands of Big business's pre occupation with profit. From big Oil, Big packaging, Big wheat, Big currency, big tobacco, Big manufacturers, Big Chemical, Supermarkets, to Big Phama and beyond can easily be shown to support my contention. They regularly bend, manipulate,avoid, influence laws in their favour rather than accepting or abiding by them.

It is patently naive and/or incredibly myopic to assert that any or all of the above give a rat's smelly bits about the individual. Even less credible to suggest that the silent hand of the market is an effective control. it all boils down to financial power and the abuses they engender.

*Yabby's convenient memory ignores the endless lists of businesses and individuals who have suffered unnecessarily at the hands of Big business's pre occupation with profit.*

Examinator, we could equally make lists of people who suffered at the
hands of men, or at the hands of women, or at the hands of Australians. Or the hands of politicians greedy for power.

People who work for and run corporations are everyday people, many
just perhaps smarter then you :)

That said, corporations are not the salvation army, nor do they
claim to be, for that is not their role. If you want charity, go
to a charity.

*They regularly bend, manipulate,avoid, influence laws in their favour rather than accepting or abiding by them.*

So everyday individuals don't do these things? On what planet are
you living? What about politicians?

*It is patently naive and/or incredibly myopic to assert that any or all of the above give a rat's smelly bits about the individual.*

They certainly do, for they want your money. So they take endless trouble
to find out, what could make you spend it with them. Unlike Govts,
who have the right to expropriate it legally and by force.

So they have to convince you, unlike Govts who can force you, even
if you did not vote for them and you have to accept mob rule.

So tell me Examinator, how much do you pay for internet access and
do you think it is value for money?

Yabby
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10317817.stm
Let's see you explain this away?

Face old mate Corporation don't give a stuff. Unless dragged kicking and screaming before a fait compete .(so my french is suss)