Giant telco firm Telstra Corporation Ltd is banking on an expected surge in customer numbers is fiscal 2011, reaffirming that the company's previously set financial guidance is within reach despite projections that earnings could suffer a bit in the current financial year.

Addressing Telstra's annual general meeting on Friday, company chief executive David Thodey revealed that earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) would retreat by a manageable double-digit due to increasing redundancy costs and some revenues adjustments from the Sydney Yellow pages during the first half of FY2011.

Mr Thodey said that Telstra's EBITDA downward trend could extend a little further in the second half yet more customers are expected to sign up for the telco' services at around the same time as he expressed confidence that "the company remains strong and in an excellent position to capitalise on the emerging market opportunities."

Telstra senior executives said that the ongoing discussions on the national broadband network would prove crucial for the company in the months ahead as chief financial officer John Stanhope admitted that no definite conclusion is seen for now on the negotiations.

Mr Stanhope is optimistic though that a draft Definitive Agreements with NBN Co could be forged by Christmas time, which should cover provisions embodied in the Universal Service Obligations that would determine the telecom industry's role in the actual NBN roll out.

More crucial, according to Telstra, is the federal government's official policy on the matter and Mr Stanhope said that Communications Minister Stephen Conroy gave his assurance on Thursday that an official decision should be forthcoming in the coming weeks.

Barring anymore glitches, the full-form legislation should go through the parliament in the first few months of 2011 and Telstra shareholders should be able to vote on the issue by the start of the second half of the year, according to Mr Stanhope.

Also, Telstra used the occasion in assuring its shareholders that the company is working doubly hard to address the telco's declining share price value as chairman Catherine Livingstone stressed that "in the short-term we need to do more to protect shareholder value, because your board is very concerned by Telstra's undervalued share price."

Ms Livingstone explained that Telstra's stock prices have been sliding mostly due to the company's stagnant revenue and profit movement, the stalled NBN deal, the divestiture of shares by Future Fund and more so, on the back of global decline of telecom stocks.

She assured, however, that despite the challenging environment, Telstra is wholly capable of dealing with the situation by using the appropriate strategy, revealing at the same time that the board's earlier commitment of fully-franked 28 cents dividend payment for the current and following financial years would be duly-honoured. Tweet