Telstra has seen an increase in its customers over the past six months, with its CEO saying the telco has “remained disciplined” in reducing its costs as a business, the company revealed in its half-year results today.
Discussing the telco’s results, Telstra CEO Vicki Brady said the company’s overall momentum was “good”.
“Our mobiles business remains central to growth and continues to perform strongly, growing EBITDA almost $300 million in the half driven by more customers, average revenue per user (ARPU) growth and cost discipline,” Brady said.
Telstra confimed to Gizmodo Australia that mobile SIOs over the past six month grew 4.6 per cent across consumer, small business, enterprise and wholesale. Demand for mobile continues to grow with mobile traffic up 30 per cent, a trend the telco said it sees continuing.
Brady also noted the telco’s efforts in trying to reduce its costs as a business.
“We have remained disciplined on reducing our costs, particularly considering the external economic environment,” she added.
The company posted a 1.1 per cent jump in its consumer and small business arm, with a result of $6.4 billion, the consumer arm still makes up 50 per cent of Telstra’s income. Telstra also posted a 2.9 per cent growth in mobile income.
In its half-year results, Telstra said its mobile services revenue increased with growth in ARPU and services in operation across postpaid handheld and prepaid handheld.
Mobile hardware revenue decreased due to lower handset sales volumes, partly offset by growth in sales of wearables and a sales mix of higher-value handsets and accessories.
This first half also included progress on Telstra’s rollout of the OneWeb low earth orbit (LEO) satellite backhaul for its mobile sites, which will continue for the next 18 months.
The telco’s Intercity Fibre network build had more than 540kms in the ground, five new routes to begin construction in 2025, and an expansion to its network in the Pilbara.
There was also continued investment in subsea cables and satellite landing stations in Asia and the US to support capacity demand.
This story has been updated.