The $1 billion hole in Telstra's records

The most glaring recent example of the need to clean up government RM practices was attributed to Telstra. According to an internal memo from Telstra CEO Frank Blount leaked to the Australian Financial Review in early August, records of the existence and location of cable assets in Telstra's copper-based network - the PSTN, or public standard telephone network - are "badly broken". Mr Blount said that despite efforts to "clean up" RM practices two years ago, only $300 or $400 million had been accounted for. When joined with an estimate of 50 percent of cables being "lost" in some areas, it may be that up to $1 billion is still missing out of the $3 billion total.