Telstra’s T25 strategy serves positive growth momentum

Marking the first full year of its T25 strategy, Telstra has displayed continued financial growth and positive momentum during FY23. 

Total income grew 5.4 per cent to $23.2 billion and reported EBITDA grew 8.4 per cent to $7.9 billion, while underlying EBITDA was up 9.6 per cent to $8 billion. Net profit after tax rose 13.1 per cent to $2.1 billion. 

Telstra CEO Vicki Brady said its T25 strategy was on track and will hit the half-way delivery point in a few months’ time. 

“Our mobile’s business remains central to our growth and continues to perform very strongly. Our infrastructure, international, consumer and small business fixed line and health businesses also grew earnings. At the same time, there are aspects of our enterprise fixed business that are experiencing headwinds,” she said. 

“We remain disciplined on reducing our costs, particularly considering the external economic environment.

“We continue to see the positive impact of product simplification, digitisation, answering consumer and small business calls in Australia, and bringing our retail stores in house.”

Brady said improvements in customer experience, continued network leadership, and strength in cyber security was having a positive impact with customer complaints reduced to a record low in the year. 

“We are now blocking more than nine million scam calls and around 20 million scam SMS each month. We have also taken steps to improve the way we collect and retain customer ID data to help reduce the risk of cybercrime for our customers,” she said. 

“The year ahead will be critical for us, with a lot to deliver. We will continue to prioritise activities with the greatest impact on customer experience and invest in the capabilities and assets we need to deliver sustainable growth.

Brady said its digital infrastructure business InfraCo was seeing strong customer demand shaped by the shift to the cloud and rapid AI adoption driving data centre and edge requirements, along with needs for domestic fibre and undersea cable.

“The infrastructure investments we are making, including our inter‐city fibre network and submarine cable network, will underpin a more digitised future and see us strategically positioned for growth,” she said. 

“We also continue to invest in capabilities and partnerships to grow our offering in areas including artificial intelligence, data analytics, Internet of Things, and cyber security, and I am optimistic about the potential for growth in these areas beyond T25.”

During the year significant progress on T25 also included reaching 5G population coverage targets and deals signed with Low Earth Orbit satellite providers OneWeb and Starlink to deliver improved services in regional and remote Australia.    

Construction was also well underway on Telstra’s new intercity fibre project, with strong interest from hyper‐scalers, other operators, satellite providers and national enterprises, Brady said.