Overseas Telecommunications Commission

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Overseas Telecommunications Commission

Company type	State Owned Enterprise
Industry	Telecommunication
Founded	1944; 80 years ago (1944)
Defunct	1 February 1992; 32 years ago (1992-02-01)
Fate	Merged with the Australian Telecommunications Corporation
Area served	Australia

The Overseas Telecommunications Commission (OTC) was established by Australia in August 1946. It inherited facilities and resources from Amalgamated Wireless Australasia (AWA) and Cable & Wireless, and was charged with responsibility for all international telecommunications services into, through and out of Australia. In effect, all overseas telecommunications was nationalized. Australia was adopting a Commonwealth-wide policy that had been adopted at the Commonwealth conference in 1945. The main goal was to end the artificial routing of traffic to cable or wireless depending on private financial profits.^[1]

On 1 February 1992 it was merged with Australia's domestic telecommunications carrier, the Australian Telecommunications Corporation ("Telecom Australia") to create the Australian and Overseas Telecommunications Corporation (AOTC). The new organisation underwent a corporate identity review and was subsequently renamed Telstra.

When first established in 1946, OTC inherited facilities which had been depleted during World War II, and faced rising costs and falling profits. From this tenuous beginning, the organisation was to grow over the years to gain world standing on the international telecommunications stage.

Throughout rapid developments in undersea cable networks, global satellite systems and burgeoning digital technologies, OTC maintained a keen watch over its services to ensure continued quality. It also maintained and developed its links with maritime services, one of the initial arms of Australia's international telecommunications network.