AdvertisementTelstra chief executive Vicki Brady says “ultimate accountability” for July’s national Triple Zero outage rests with her, after the company’s board stripped $607,000 from her short-term bonus.Brady was speaking as the company delivered its annual results on Thursday, with Telstra’s net profit rising 2.7 per cent to $2.4 billion. Brady’s total pay rose 11 per cent, to $6.8 million, and the telco says the failure that cut off Triple Zero calls has cost it almost no customers.Telstra chief executive Vicki Brady apologised for last month’s outage.Louise Kennerley“There were things within our control that triggered the outage,” Brady said on Thursday, describing the board’s reasoning.“As CEO, ultimate accountability rests with me for the outage.”AdvertisementTelstra directors cut her individual performance multiplier by 20 percentage points, leaving her a short-term bonus of $2.762 million. Then-group executive of global networks and technology Shailin Sehgal took the same reduction, and the rest of the senior executive team, including chief financial officer Michael Ackland, lost 10 points each, taking a further $1.29 million out of the bonus pool.Brady said the external investigation was still running and the board could impose further consequences through FY27 pay once it reports. She said executive targets for the current year were signed off in June, before the outage, and no allowance had been made for it.This masthead first revealed the outage was caused by a server that had reached the end of its supported life almost a decade ago and was never replaced, despite newer devices costing less than $30,000.Customers have largely stayed, however. Brady said there had been some small impact on the day itself but no material change since in customers leaving or joining. Just over 30,000 customers have contacted Telstra, and it has processed just under $1 million in credits.AdvertisementIn its full-year results on Thursday, Telstra revealed its direct workforce is now 4 per cent smaller, at 29,334, and the telco has signalled it will keep cutting as it simplifies the business. The job losses lifted its redundancy bill by $92 million to $206 million.That cost-cutting helped drive a full-year result that has delivered shareholders a bigger dividend and a fresh $1 billion share buyback.Telstra’s full-year results to June 30 showed net profit rose 2.7 per cent to $2.4 billion, and core earnings climbed 3 per cent to $8.2 billion, even as group revenue dipped 0.8 per cent to $22.9 billion.Telstra shed more than 1200 roles in the year leading up to the nationwide outage that left Australians unable to reach emergency services. BloombergRevenue at Telstra’s consumer arm, its largest, rose 0.7 per cent, and its infrastructure arm, InfraCo, rose 3.4 per cent. Those gains offset a 5.2 per cent fall in the enterprise business and an 11.3 per cent slump in the international unit.AdvertisementThe mobile division remained a powerhouse. It added 274,000 users, though most of these were wholesale customers on rival brands using Telstra’s network, while its own retail postpaid handheld services actually went backwards. The average monthly postpaid bill rose 3.8 per cent to $56.20.Asked whether customers could keep absorbing price rises when reliability was in question, Brady said running a mobile network took significant investment and pricing had to sustain it. She pointed to prepaid plans, no lock-in contracts and Telstra’s MVNO partners as options for cost-conscious customers.‘As CEO, ultimate accountability rests with me for the outage.’Telstra chief Vicki BradyThe board lifted the full-year dividend by 10.5 per cent to 21 cents a share, 90.5 per cent of which is franked. The planned $1 billion buyback follows the $1.25 billion program completed in June. Brady said the buybacks sat “alongside increased capex and strategic investment” and allowed Telstra to lower its cost of capital.She also acknowledged the outage had changed the conversation about the network. “Network resilience was brought into sharp focus,” she said, adding that Australians’ reliance on connectivity “will only grow”.AdvertisementLooking ahead, Telstra expects underlying earnings to grow to between $8.5 billion and $8.8 billion next year. To support that, it plans to spend up to $3.65 billion on capital works, with what it called a lift in network investment to apply lessons from the outage. However, the cost of major infrastructure projects, including its Aura fibre network, has blown out by $200 million to roughly $1.8 billion, driven by inflation and difficult site conditions.eToro analyst Josh Gilbert said guidance suggested management was not bracing for an outage-driven exodus, but that reputational damage would not clear overnight, with the regulator’s inquiry still live.He said the dividend had done much of the heavy lifting for shareholders, who would eventually want the share price to pull its weight too.The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.SaveYou have reached your maximum number of saved items.Remove items from your saved list to add more.ShareLicense this articleMore:TelecommunicationsTelstra CorporationVicki BradyDavid Swan is the technology editor for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously technology editor for The Australian newspaper.Connect via X or email.AdvertisementAdvertisement