Telstra Combines Retail, Sales Teams After Agreement on New Fiber Network

Telstra Corp., Australia’s biggest phone company, will combine its sales and retail teams into a single unit after agreeing last month to hand over fixed-line assets to the government’s national broadband network.

Gordon Ballantyne will head the customer division, which will be responsible for sales to consumers, business and government, Melbourne-based Telstra said. Deena Shiff will lead a new applications and ventures unit targeting services such as education and health. Telstra agreed last month to give up control of its copper- wire assets to the government’s fiber network in exchange for A$11 billion ($11.8 billion) of compensation, ending its role as a wholesaler to other phone and Internet service providers. Chief Executive Officer David Thodey is also creating specialist teams for cloud-computing and media services and centralizing services such as human resources and finance to cut costs.