[3]: 58 The union was renamed the Postal Telecommunication Technicians' Association in 1943 and by 1966 had a membership of 6,834, of whom 864 were classified as female or junior members.
[5] Telecom management decided to begin replacing existing electro-mechanical telephone exchange technology with the Ericsson ARE 11 computerised system.
The ATEA proposed an alternative arrangement, involving a decentralised maintenance structure that it claimed would retain technical expertise throughout the network, however this was rejected by Telecom management.
[6]: 37 The ATEA introduced a series of bans on telephone, teleprinter and satellite communication services, aimed at primarily targeting Telecom's large business customers.
[8] During the late 1970s the ATEA campaigned against the establishment of Aussat, a proposed communication satellite network to be operated as a public-private partnership.