Telstra is the privatisation of the old government postmaster general (well after the split from mail post).  The government department owned the copper, and telstra retained it as part of the privatisation.<p>As part of this agreement Telstra had to provide equal access to its network, and had to charge the same price for all users, so that the cost of calls was the same for people in regional areas (even though maintenance cost more).<p>Most of the issues relating to Austrlia&#x27;s internet relate to the cost of overseas transit of information.  There are only a few cables between Australia and the rest of the world, and that is the large driver of cost or at least it was in the early 00s