Vicki Brady (Telstra)
Telstra has announced it plans to add five more connectivity routes to its $1.6 billion intercity fibre network across Australia.
The telco revealed at its Investor Day that one of the routes will into Darwin from Adelaide, unlocking pathways to sub-sea cable infrastructure. Further details of the other four were not revealed.
First announced in February 2022, construction of the intercity fibre project commenced in March 2022.
In August 2022, Telstra announced the first five priority routes, and construction is well underway with more than 400km of cable already having been laid.
Telstra initially budgeted between $1.4 billion to $1.6 billion outside of its business-as-usual capital expenditure over the next five years. As a result of the new five routes, this budget will now reach the upper end.
“Connectivity will continue to play a key role in our economy and there is enormous potential for digital technologies to rewrite Australia’s growth equation,” said Brady.
“As the largest investor in digital infrastructure in Australia, we are uniquely positioned to design and deliver this critical infrastructure, which will enable ultrafast connectivity between capital cities.
“Importantly, we have future-proofed the design and given ourselves the ability to extend this connectivity into regional and remote communities as demand grows and other partnerships arise, which will open up opportunities for regionally based industries and businesses.”
Telstra also announced it would expand its fibre infrastructure across Western Australia’s Pilbara region, which will include 165km of new fibre built for use by Telstra customers to connect additional mining sites.
During the investor day event, Telstra reconfirmed financial year 2024 income of $22.8 billion to $24.8 billion and underlying EBITDA of up to $8.4 billion.
At the end of FY23, Telstra marked the first full year of its T25 strategy with revenue growing by 5.4 per cent to $23.2 billion and net profit after tax rising 13.1 per cent to $2.1 billion.
