Telstra outlined alternative without NBN
The nation's largest telecommunication company is prepared for operations without the National Broadband Network deal.
Telstra Corporation Limited (ASX: TLS) is gearing up for intensive competition and changing consumer trends when the management team reiterated the financial targets for the 2010 fiscal year. Chief executive David Thodey said, “Our strategy does not change in terms of the NBN at all. The industry transition is what it is and we are getting on with the job... I am trying to get us away from being dependent on any outcome.”
Telstra will be focusing on a consumer shift in voice and data services from fixed line to mobile, higher demand for speed and data, a shift to products with lower profit margins, and increasing competition that would be due to wholesale price reductions.
Thodey emphasized that the company is set “to find new revenue streams, reduce costs and to use 2011 as a "transition year ... to invest in operational excellence to prepare the company to compete.”
According to chief financial officer John Stanhope, Telstra expects a higher customer base, more revenue, but a single digit reduction in earnings due to expenditures on the turnaround plan.
Stanhope said $1 billion in operational expenditure would go to subsidizing mobile phone handsets and new product growth. Another $230 million would be allocated on labour and incentives for senior staff, while another $40 million will be for staff redundancies.
The turnaround plan would allow Telstra to maintain a 28 cent dividend inspite of an unfavorable forecast of as much as nine percent reduced pre-tax earnings.