Telstra renews contract

Telstra Wholesale and Commander Communications have renewed a long-term services contract covering mobile terminating access rates, fixed voice services, mobile wholesale, and data services. The companies would not disclose terms of the deal. Commander managing director Adrian Coote described the deal as mutually beneficial and said no negative consequences would flow from the deal. He said customer pricing would not be affected, noting the news was designed to reassure the market that it would not be hurt by changes in the telco sector. Commander expects to post earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of between $50 million and $55 million for the financial year to June 2006. Mark Jones