AUSTRALIA: Australia is moving toward reforms that...

AUSTRALIA: Australia is moving toward reforms that will forever change its telecommunications monopoly system, which people have counted on but cursed for decades. Although not on the same scale as the breakup of the mammoth Bell System in the United States, the government is determined to inject a measure of competition into the technically efficient but somewhat outdated Australian system. The plan is to merge government-owned Telecom, the domestic carrier and second-largest employer in Australia, with OTC Ltd., the overseas network. At the same time, the government will sell off the debt-plagued Aussat satellite carrier to a private company--thus establishing the underpinning of the new competition.