Telstra's throws "Redmond Firewall" around ISP market
- — 22 February, 2000 10:11
The free Internet service is believed to be just one option in a package designed to allow Telstra to maintain its foothold as the country's leading telecommunications provider.
It is too early yet to determine whether the ACCC is comfortable with a plan that allows Telstra to use its overwhelming dominance in the local telephone call market to potentially cripple competition in the ISP market - a neat variation on the infamous Redmond firewall deployed by Microsoft for many years in the personal computer space.
Indeed, many of Microsoft's current anti-trust distractions can be directly attributed to this policy of allegedly using its operating system monopoly to crush competitors in other areas.
Telstra recently lost the battle to acquire Australia's second largest ISP, OzEmail, to eisa.
