Face value: Calling Canberra

摘要

An old-fashioned red telephone box stands in the recep-tion of Telstra's chic Sydney offices. Draped inside is a Superman costume. It is an outfit Sol Trujillo must be sorely tempted to try on right now. Since taking over as chief executive of Australia's biggest telephone operator 11 months ago, Mr Trujillo, a Mexican-American, has been trying to drag the country's tele-coms industry into the 21st century. It is a challenge that might daunt even a native of the planet Krypton. Take those public phone boxes: Telstra has 31,000 of them dotted around Australia. Most are unused since 90% of the population has a mobile phone. Telstra loses A$3om ($23.2111) a year maintaining them. Yet there are howls of protest each time one is removed.