Telstra takes aim at nation's growing regulatory burden

Australian telecommunications giant Telstra is concerned that the nation's complex regulatory environment is hindering investment in critical infrastructure, according to the company's chairman, Craig Dunn. During a shareholder meeting, Dunn emphasized that well-targeted regulation is essential, but it should not be the sole driver of improved service quality or resilience.

He cited the proposed mandatory roaming policy as an example of regulation that could slow investment, stating that it would not result in new mobile towers or expand coverage to underserved areas. Telstra has invested $3.8 billion in its mobile network in regional and remote Australia over the past five years to differentiate on coverage.

Dunn argued that any new regulation should be evaluated based on the incentives it creates, not merely on the intentions behind it. The company faced a nationwide outage in July, which highlighted the need for better oversight of network timing. The outage resulted in significant customer dissatisfaction and led to a Senate inquiry and an investigation by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

In response to the setback, Telstra's board reduced CEO Vicki Brady's pay package and docked short-term incentives for other senior executives. Shareholders expressed mixed reactions to the company's performance, with some acknowledging the business's prior success while criticizing the leadership for the outage. Telstra's shares closed at $4.64, down 0.2 percent.