Agree with you drsmith, with 12.5 billion shares on issue you are not going to get decent earnings per share on selling products the same as everyone else. I was a bit surprised when Telstra didn't have a tilt at "10" before Packer and the rest. They certainly need to come up with a strategy, while cash flows are good and I DON'T think Trading Post was it.
Maybe they need to think outside the box like Wesfarmers and become a conglomerate rather than a single focus company. They at least have exposure to the whole country through their depots and exchanges, just need an avenue to capitalise on it. Who knows maybe tie up with Toll(trucking and logistics with state of the art communications and tracking). Maybe keep their copper infrastructure for dedicated use that doesn't compete with the n.b.n for example a national security network for home and business security alarm monitoring. Telstra could install a dedicated system at each exchange to send alarm messages to the nearest police station, just needs a bit of vision, I came up with this in 2 wines and 30 minutes.
While I can still edit.
Maybe give radio stations the ability to transmit from the Telstra repeaters so that travellers can pick up radio stations all over Australia not just in built up areas. The government might even pay extra for this facility then they could broadcast emergency messages in hard to reach areas, the government has seemed to have plenty of money to screw Telstra so this should be a pitance.