An additional milestone in the restructuring of the Austrian telecommunications market was the spin-off of the PTT from the Federal Ministry and its establishment as independent company in the form of a public limited company. This step involved two important objectives: firstly, the operational flexibility of the company was increased in preparation for future competition and, secondly, the ownership function which previously had rested with the competent Federal Ministry of Public Economic Affairs and Transport was transferred to the Federal Ministry of Finance.

With regard to legislation, the spin-off of the postal and telecom sectors from public control was effected in the Post Structure Act 1996 per 0105.1996, when PTA was founded as independent public limited company. The purpose of the PTA was the provision of postal, telecommunications, parcel, bus and other commercial services.

Despite intensive debate, complete separation of the different operational areas into separate independent companies was not carried out at first.

To exercise the shareholder's rights of the state (at that time PTA had been wholly owned by the state) also the Post- und Telekombeteiligungsverwaltungsgesellschaft (PTBG) was founded pursuant to the Post Structure Act, which is responsible for exercising the shareholder's rights at PTA and for the management and redemption of the debts not included in the opening balance of PTA (in fact, the state assumed liability as guarantor up to a maximum amount of ATS 50 billion). The equity interests in PTBG were held by the Federal Ministry of Finance.