Telstra boss Vicki Brady has had her annual pay packet docked by more than $600,000 after the telco’s network meltdown last month.

The carrier tabled its 2026 Annual Report this morning, which revealed Brady has been penalised by the board to the tune of $607,000 after Telstra’s mobile network left millions of customers cut off – some for several hours - on July 8.

Despite the hit, Brady is still one of the nation’s highest paid CEOs, taking home more than $6 million last year. 

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Telstra’s initial investigations show the fault, during a network upgrade, was avoidable – and the board has made sure Brady has paid a price.

“There were things within our control that triggered the outage,- and so they formed the view that that was appropriate,” she said at a results presentation today.

Telstra chief executive Vicki Brady. Credit: Bianca De Marchi/AAP

Brady has also confirmed there could further executive penalties once ongoing inquiries into the meltdown are complete.

“The board will consider those findings and if further accountability needs to be demonstrated, that is something they will consider,” she said.

Telstra is also facing the possibility of a large fine for the incident form the Australian Communications Management Authority, but Brady says it’s too soon to estimate what any penalty might be.

Brady revealed 30,000 customers have already sought compensation, with almost $1 million in bill credits issued.

Telstra says the public’s tolerance for network faults is low, but says it’s customers have stuck with it in the wake of last month’s crash, with no significant loss of trade.

The fallout from the outage was a recurring theme at Telstra’s results presentation. The company announced a $2.4 billion profit after raking in $23 billion in revenue from its 8.2 million customers.

The result is up slightly on last year, but less than half the record profits of a decade ago. Investors will receive a full year dividend of 21 cents per share.

“It is our constant focus to make sure we’re delivering value,” said Brady, as Telstra tries to keep pace with Australians and their insatiable appetite for data.

Telstra has revealed its results. (George Chan/AAP PHOTOS) Credit: AAP

After years of consecutive and aggressive cost hikes, Telstra has given customers its strongest hint yet their price pain is over – for now.

Telstra has recently pushed through its second round of price hikes in as many years for mobile and internet plans, making them among the most expensive on the market.

According to its website, the company’s cheapest postpaid mobile plan is now $74/month, with its basic NBN internet plan now at a monthly cost of $89.

But Australia’s biggest telco has given its strongest signal yet of a period of price stability, while detailing its outlook for the next 12 months. While Brady refused to rule out further hikes, she thinks the carrier’s settings are now right for the current climate.

“There’s not a huge incentive to go up to higher price plans today,” she said, while defending Telstra’s premium network.

”It does take significant investment, as does providing service to our customers.”

Telstra’s mobile network, one of the largest on Earth, remains the heart of its business and is still its biggest cash cow, generating almost half the carrier’s income (44 per cent) – and it’s growing.

The telco has added another 270,000 mobile subscribers in the last year. Price hikes have seen a loss of 47,000 post-paid customers, but that was more than offset by a strong rise in cheaper pre-paid deals along with growth from Telstra re-sellers like Aldi and Woolworths, as well as Telstra’s own budget brands, including Belong and Boost.

“We have a portfolio of brands because we know the premium Telstra experience may not be for everyone,” Brady said.

The company has spent $9.5 billion on its mobile network in recent times, with more to come. Brady has put 5G at the top of her list for the year ahead, ordering staff to plug key holes in the network, while pushing the fast-forward button on its rollout.

The carrier has recently 1200 towers to 5G in the last year, and built 150 new ones.

The telco provided an update on its expansion.. (Dean Lewins/AAP PHOTOS) Credit: AAP

Telstra is also excited about its first-to-market satellite SMS service, which allows mobile users to send text messages from anywhere in the country, as long as they’re outdoors.

“But it is a little bit of a clunky experience, it’s not a smooth one,” said Brady, acknowledging there’s more work to be done.

Telstra says 200,000 texts are now being sent each day via the service, which passed its first big test during the January bushfires in Victoria, when usage jumped three-fold after mobile towers were blacked out. Telstra is expanding the offering to include access to apps for maps and weather.

Telstra’s fixed line enterprises, providing internet to homes and business, currently accounts for almost a third of its income, and is a priority for growth.

“The competition has never been more intense, particularly around the price category,” said Steven Worrall, Telstra’s digital infrastructure chief.

“Of course, we are very mindful of subscriber numbers but we are not going to chase them at any cost.”

Future of network and AI

The telco updated investors on its new Aura Network – a giant underground matrix criss-crossing the country, which Telstra heralds as a once-in-a-generation nation-building opportunity.

More than 8500km of fibre has already been laid, in what Telstra says will be the physical backbone for the nation’s digital economy, “able to carry massive amounts of data with world-class resilience and security.”

The company has a laser focus on artificial intelligence, with a footnote in its Annual Report noting parts of the document had been produced with AI. It’s aiming for AI fluency across its entire workforce.

More than 15,000 staff have already completed training courses at Telstra’s AI Academy. The carrier says customers are also getting onboard, with one in three inquiries now solved online via the MyTelstra AI Assistant.

For customers who phone its call centres, average wait times are now down to two minutes.

But after sweeping job losses in recent years, Telstra warns there are more to come, admitting its workforce will be smaller by 2030.

Brady was quizzed on outsourcing of jobs to India, saying: “We don’t make those decisions lightly. They are very considered decisions about what will put us in the best position to be to deliver for our customers.”