Once upon a time, this company was Telecom Australia - and before that, it was part of the Post Office. Then, in the funky 90s when all things competitive became the flavour of the month, good old Telecom needed to shed its Public Service image for a new, bright future. Hence Telstra, a name that slips off the tongue like a marinated slug, fails to describe anything and exceeds nynex in hopeless telecoms titling.