Telstra says the worst headwinds from the NBN rollout will now fall in the 2021 financial year.Credit:Justin McManus
In itsCorporate Plan released last Friday, NBN Co revealed it had missed its cash flow target for the third consecutive time and said the $51 billion network would not break even until 2023.
It also said the number of premises forecast to be connected during the 2020 financial year had dropped from 2 million to 1.5 million.
This prompted an increase in Telstra's underlying earnings before interest,tax,depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the current financial year.
Underlying EBITDA is now set to be $7.4 billion to $7.9 billion compared with the previously announced range of $7.3 billion to $7.8 billion. Total income is predicted to drop by $400 million,now falling between $25.3 billion and $27.3 billion.
The NBN is a very very large project ... and[Telstra] is at the mercy of them for some of the elements within their business.
Morgans analyst Nick Harris
"Telstra no longer anticipates[the current financial year] being the year of peak NBN headwind and now estimates this will occur in[the 2021 financial year],"the company said in a statement.
Telstra dominates Australia's mobile telephone and broadband markets,but profit from its mainstay fixed-line phone and internet business is dwindling as the NBN replaces a copper system it had monopolised.