Australian incumbent mobile and fixed-line operator Telstra is to significantly streamline its management structure by reorganising its business into four main functional groups – customer-facing units, product-based business units, a newly consolidated operations unit, and corporate support units. These will sit alongside a new International division, Sensis (Telstra’s directory arm), and Telstra Wholesale. New CEO David Thodey (pictured) – who took over at the firm from Sol Trujillo earlier this year – said the changes were another step towards implementing the strategy he had outlined to investors and shareholders in recent weeks. The changes come at a time of negotiations with the Australian government over Telstra’s role in the building of a new National Broadband Network (NBN) in the country; the government has also called for Telstra to be divided into two separate retail and wholesale units.

As part of the changes, Thodey said that Telstra’s product portfolio would be divided into two specialist groups: ‘PSTN, Fixed Broadband, BigPond & Media’, and ‘Wireless, Data, Applications & Services.’ “These new groups will help us focus on opportunities in markets that are most important for Telstra’s future, like the ‘digital home’,” he said. Meanwhile, Thodey said the new International unit would bring together all of Telstra’s Asian assets and expertise into one dedicated unit for the first time, while Sensis would remain responsible for product expertise within the Chinese media assets. “Asia is a very important market for Telstra and the creation of this new unit enables us to take a coordinated approach to our performance in one of the world’s fast-growing markets,” Thodey added.