Telstra has released a document detailing its plan for operational separation, but competitors have labelled it "a disgrace".

The plan states that Telstra will be split into three sets of "Business Units" — Retail, Wholesale and Key Network Services. Each will be kept apart by physical and/or organisational boundaries.

Telstra competitors have already laid into the proposal, with Competitive Carriers Coalition executive director David Forman calling it "a cut and paste on the direction it received from the Minister outlining what it must do." He suggested that the plan be "rejected outright and Telstra should be told to start from scratch".

The CCC's comments no doubt draw from the fact that the plan appears to keep the status quo. In a submission to the Federal Government last year, the CCC described the existing Wholesale division as "mere window dressing", and pointed out that Telstra Retail is "not required to access Telstra infrastructure and networks on the same basis nor are they required to source via the Wholesale Division".

The proposed operation separation plan from Telstra continues this theme, only going so far as to state that the Retail division will deal with retail customers, and the Wholesale division will deal with wholesale customers.

The document also mentions a set of "equivalency" frameworks, said by Telstra to "simplify and make more transparent how Telstra sets prices for equivalent wholesale and retail services", and to "demonstrate the operational quality" of retail services compared to that of wholesale services.

On the broadband front, Telstra says it will provide new functionality to its wholesale division that will allow it to check a phone number or a street address to see if it can support ADSL. The former was always available, but checking a street address could prove valuable to wholesale customers.

Telstra has invited public comment on the proposal until 5 March.

Links:

• Operational Separation Plan (OSP)  (Telstra, 3 Feb 2006)