Telstra Shareholders Approve Decommission and NBN Plan

Shareholders in Telstra have voted to approve the company's participation in the roll out of the National Broadband Network (NBN), including the decommissioning of the company's copper network. The resolution on the NBN received the support of 99 percent of shareholders who have voted or lodged a proxy.


“From the outset, we said we would put any proposal to cooperate with the NBN to shareholders – we consider the vote today as the most important step in the process we commenced over two years ago. It is clear from this interim result on the resolution that, given the alternatives facing their company, both institutional and retail shareholders are supportive of our involvement in the NBN," stated Telstra Chairman Catherine Livingstone.


In her address to shareholders, Livingstone also noted some other interesting strategic trends:


Australia is one of the most penetrated smartphone markets in the world.


Data traffic on Telstra's networks has doubled in 2011, and is projected to increase 30-fold within 5 years and 1,000-fold within 10 years.


Telstra's growth areas – Media, Network Applications and Services, and Asia – now account for 19% of total sales revenues.


It is intention of Telstra's Board to maintain a 28 cent fully franked dividend for fiscal 2012 and fiscal 2013.


In 2011, Telstra has added an extra 659,000 service bundles, 1.7 million mobiles, 158,000 fixed broadband lines, and 914,000 new mobile broadband customers.
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