Mobile Customers Boost Telstra’s Profits

With over 15 million mobile users, Telstra has had a substantial increase in its net profits for the past year. The company has posted a 12.9% increase, or a profit of $3.9 Billion after tax, which is slightly higher than the $3.76 Billion analysts had projected. The previous year, Telstra’s net profit amounted to $3.4 Billion.

Telstra credits this increase to its new customers of about 1.2 Million subscribers and that despite the mobile market slowing down, the company has managed to achieve an increase in clients, sales and revenue. It has also declared that dividends have risen to 28 cents per share, which analysts say is within the scope of their expectations.

In a statement released to the Australian Stock Exchange, the company’s Chief Executive, David Thodey said, “We have been able to deliver the third consecutive year of significant customer growth as a result of our focus on improving customer service as well as continued investment in the network.”

Its Network Applications and Services portfolio is also luring a lot of corporate clients who make use of cloud computing as well as data storage. The chief has also announced that are plans to improve Telstra’s coverage to 4G all around the country by the end of 2013. Telstra expects that this project will serve over 85% of Australia.

The company acknowledged, however, that its fixed line business continues to drop, as more customers are now opting for mobile services with internet options. In fact, for the past year, Telstra has lost over 300,000 fixed line business.

Meanwhile, Sensis, its directory business which used to be a huge money-maker, is also on a decline. But according to Telstra’s financial officer, “Sensis’s performance was in line with our expectations as the business continues the challenging journey of transitioning to a digital model.”