Transfields future as Telecom SP on knife-edge

I have blogged about this before (it seems like I'm always saying that - just prophetic I guess), but it seems that poor old Transfield are loosing money on their Telecom contracts. See TVNZ news item.

To be honest I'm not surprised, they have been nailed down so much, there can't be any margin in this work, in fact they have admitted they are loosing money on it. A few years ago, when the Telecom patches were being awarded, they must have put in bids so close to their break-even point that there was no room for any variation, and now they're in the smelly brown stuff.

So what are Telecom going to do about it? Two choices; negotiate with Transfield to try and keep them on, and let them actually do business so they can make some money and survive - or give it all to Downers.

Personally, I hope that Transfield stick around and are able to continue with the Telecom patches they have - I think it would be so detrimental to the NZ telecommunications industry if it was just Downers (Don't forget, they have Telecom patches, the TelstraClear SP contract, and the Vodafone maintenance contract - hell, there's not much else out there!!?!)

I can't believe I'm defending Transfield - they are probably the lowest paying SP in the industry. Maybe if they sort things out with Telecom they will address this - yeah right!

Happy days!!

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