Telecom

Telecom was Australia's only telephone company until deregulation in about 1990, at which point Telecom changed its name to Telstra. Telecom still exists, but as the public company that controls the phone lines themselves, while Telstra, which is now a private company, controls the connection to them. All phone companies, including competitors such as Optus and AAPT, use Telecom phone lines and pay them a fee. Telstra gets discounted rates for this.