TELSTRA'S second-largest shareholder has positioned itself to lead an investor revolt against the federal government's national broadband network.

Air travellers are whiling away the boring hours shopping from catalogues of goodies on offer from airlines, writes Garry Barker.

Now's a great time to do up your dump – or take advantage of a buoyant market and offload it.

The idea that Telstra might be able to strong-arm the Federal Government into writing a $33 billion cheque for its national fixed-line copper wire telephone network is literally fantastic.

Telco could still become a crucial enabler of the new broadband network.