Alston criticises Telstra's Easymail axe
By Andrew Colley, ZDNet Australia
07 February 2002
The federal government has joined its voice with those criticising Telstra's plan to dismantle its no-frills Easymail service.
Telstra's decision to withdraw the low-cost e-mail service on March 13 has drawn criticism from Minister for communications and information technology, senator Richard Alston.
The minister argued that businesses that rely on the service aren't being given enough time to ensure that their performance is protected from negative impacts of the decision. He called on Telstra to take steps to ensure businesses aren't damaged by the closure.
Rejecting the government's criticism, Telstra spokesperson Micheal Herskope said that the Easymail service was "never designed for business" and that the company has taken appropriate steps to ensure that its customers aren't inconvenienced by the move.
"We took the decision to give the customers six weeks notice which we believe is adequate," he said.
The Minister's office says that the six-week preparation period is insufficient to address its key concern.
According to Alston, leaving business customers without an e-mail forwarding or notification service could expose them to damage caused by loss of orders and customers. He has instructed the carrier to explain why it can't provide such a service.
"We [Telstra] won't because that would require us to preserve the Easymail platform which would defeat the purpose of making the decision to remove it," Herskope said. "From a practical point of view, we cannot preserve those e-mail addresses".
Telstra has, however, taken another measure to assist Easymail customers to find alternative arrangements opening an advisory hotline for customers left stranded by the closure. Herskope said that hotline staff would offer Easymail users the opportunity to move to Telstra's BigPond platform.
Despite its public criticism of the carrier the Federal Government will maintain its hands-off policy where Telstra is concerned.
"We don't instruct companies to provide uneconomic or unsustainable products," a spokesperson for Senator Alston said.