Telstra Corp has announced plans to cut 8,000 jobs in a major restructure.
The company plans to split its infrastructure assets into a new wholly owned business unit in preparation for a potential demerger, or the entry of a strategic investor, in a post-national broadband network rollout world.
The new business unit is to be called Telstra InfraCo.
Photo: AFP
The company said it would abolish one in four executive and middle management roles to flatten its structure.
Customers would start to benefit from the new plans as early as next month, when the company launches “peace of mind data” across a range of new post-paid plans, making excess data charges a thing of the past, chief executive officer Andrew Penn said.
The local equity market was informed of Telstra’s plans before yesterday’s opening.
Penn said he understands the plan would affect thousands of staff, but Telstra needed to remain an industry leader.
“The rate and pace of change in our industry is increasingly driven by technological innovation and competition,” he said.
“In this environment traditional companies that do not respond are most at risk. We have worked hard preparing Telstra for this market dynamic while ensuring we did not act precipitously,” Penn said.
“However, we are now at a tipping point, where we must act more boldly if we are to continue to be the nation’s leading telecommunications company,” he added. “In the future our workforce will be a smaller, knowledge-based one with a structure and way of working that is agile enough to deal with rapid change.”
“We understand the impact this will have on our employees and once we make decisions on specific changes, we are committed to talking to impacted staff first and ensuring we support them through this period,” he said.
Telstra has named its strategy Telstra2022, because it is a three-year plan.
It includes US$2 billion of asset sales and 8,000 job losses, and is expected to save US$2.5 billion annually.
Telstra InfraCo is to have its own chief executive, reporting to Penn. It is to comprise Telstra’s fixed network infrastructure, including data centers, non-mobiles-related domestic fiber, copper, hybrid fiber-coaxial, international subsea cables, exchanges, poles, ducts and pipes.
Its services are to be sold to Telstra, wholesale customers and NBN Co.
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