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Katie Woolf spoke with Telstra CEO Andy Penn · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to Mix one oh four point nine's three sixteen. Now,
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  Speaker 1: there is certainly a lot happening around the place at
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  Speaker 1: the moment, and I'm pleased to say that the CEO
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  Speaker 1: of Telstra, Andy Penn, joins me on the line right now.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Andy.
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  Speaker 2: Hey Katie, great to be on the show.
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  Speaker 1: Good to have you with us. Now, I understand that
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  Speaker 1: telecommunication services on the Teewii Islands have had well a
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  Speaker 1: major upgrade following more than a year of work. Talk
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  Speaker 1: us through what's happened.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, Look, it's been fantastic to be able to
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  Speaker 2: work with the NT government and the local community on
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  Speaker 2: TWI to really bring around three things that we've done. Firstly,
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  Speaker 2: we substantially increase capacity, so that's the bandwidth it's available
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  Speaker 2: to the island and around the island. Secondly, we've increased
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  Speaker 2: power supply and power back up because obviously powers are
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  Speaker 2: really important part of providing connectivity and they do get
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  Speaker 2: power outages over there, so really improved the battery back up.
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  Speaker 2: And then we've also improved coverage generally on the island.
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  Speaker 2: We've put in a small cell which extends the mobile network,
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  Speaker 2: and we've upgraded the network over there to four G.
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  Speaker 2: So I was there yesterday and the local people were
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  Speaker 2: really enjoying those benefits.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I bet they are, and no doubt it's going
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  Speaker 1: to make things a lot easier for them in terms
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  Speaker 1: of that coverage, particularly, like you said, with things like
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  Speaker 1: the internet as well.
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  Speaker 2: Look. Absolutely, and of course these days it's not just
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  Speaker 2: about being able to speak to people on the phone.
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  Speaker 2: I mean these days it's about remote healthcare, it's about education,
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  Speaker 2: emergency services. So being connected, being connected to the is
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  Speaker 2: more important than it's ever been.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it really is. And we know that that's not
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  Speaker 1: all you're up to while you're in Darwin. You're going
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  Speaker 1: to be opening a new call center as well, that
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  Speaker 1: it's going to be responsible for answering all calls and
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  Speaker 1: inquiries from indigenous communities around Australia.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, that's right. And one of the things I've
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  Speaker 2: learned from visiting communities like Tiwi and other remote and
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  Speaker 2: indigenous communities around the country is those residents and those
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  Speaker 2: people need particular support and they need people that are
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  Speaker 2: empathetic to their communities to be able to actually help
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  Speaker 2: them with any telecommunications issues that they've got. So we're launching,
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  Speaker 2: to David the Chief Minister, a dedicated Indigenous call center
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  Speaker 2: which will be manned by Indigenous people who speak languages
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  Speaker 2: who have come from the communities. In fact, the leader
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  Speaker 2: of the call center comes from Golden Point on TWI,
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  Speaker 2: so they can really emphathize with people from those communities
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  Speaker 2: with their telecommunication issues.
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  Speaker 1: I reckon, that's fantastic. And so this call center is
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  Speaker 1: it going to be taking those calls from communities all
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  Speaker 1: around Australia, not just the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 2: Yep, that's right, And it's remote communities. And because obviously
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  Speaker 2: customers when they register with us and when they take
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  Speaker 2: a service from us, you know, we obviously have their address,
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  Speaker 2: we know where they're calling from essentially, and so what
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  Speaker 2: we will do is we will automatically route them. They
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  Speaker 2: won't need to dial a different number. We just automatically
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  Speaker 2: route into that dedicated remote Indusiness communities call center.
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  Speaker 1: And why have you chosen Darwin as the hub for
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  Speaker 1: that call center?
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  Speaker 2: Oh well, look, Darwin's obviously a great location for us.
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  Speaker 2: We've got you know, around about one hundred people here
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  Speaker 2: and we've got the capacity and we're able to recruit
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  Speaker 2: some really bright young call center people who have got
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  Speaker 2: a lot of passion to support their community and Andy.
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  Speaker 1: You know, we were speaking before obviously about that coverage
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  Speaker 1: on the Tiwii Islands, but moving more broadly, I guess
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  Speaker 1: you'd say around the territory, whether you're talking about Central
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  Speaker 1: Australia or up here in the top end. You know,
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  Speaker 1: coverage is incredibly important to so many of us. And
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  Speaker 1: I understand that there's also some work underway on some
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  Speaker 1: new mobile sites. Whereabouts will those be and how they're
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  Speaker 1: going to impact the community?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, look absolutely, So we cover about ninety six
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  Speaker 2: percent of the population in the Northern Territory. Obviously a
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  Speaker 2: very big geography and it's not easy and some of
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  Speaker 2: the topography of it is quite challenging from a mobile's
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  Speaker 2: point of view, and so we've extend we are extending
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  Speaker 2: coverage and we've put up a number of small spells
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  Speaker 2: in place like Stuart Wells and King's Canyon and Family
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  Speaker 2: Chasm and a lot of tourist spots as well. And
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  Speaker 2: so we've got about seven or eight and in fact
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  Speaker 2: we've been working with the Anti government on a co
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  Speaker 2: investment plan for the last seven or eight years and
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  Speaker 2: we've extended coverage to something like forty remote communities over
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  Speaker 2: that period of time.
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  Speaker 1: Are there any areas around the territory at the moment
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  Speaker 1: that's still a bit of work where you're still having
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  Speaker 1: some issues and you do think that you know that
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  Speaker 1: there needs to be a bit of additional investment.
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  Speaker 2: Look, to be honest, telecommunications is very dynamic, and that's
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  Speaker 2: because every day we're using the Internet for different things.
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  Speaker 2: Every day technology is changing and every day the network
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  Speaker 2: behaves differently. It's impacted by whether it's impacted by how
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  Speaker 2: people are using it, and so we're constantly upgrading. And
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  Speaker 2: so you know, as I say, the TV Islands was
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  Speaker 2: something we need to do some build some more capacity
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  Speaker 2: out to Group Island over on nulor Boy as well.
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  Speaker 2: There's work going on over there the tourist destinations as well.
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  Speaker 2: One of the things that these small cells have enables
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  Speaker 2: to do. Basically, a small cell is just industry jargon
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  Speaker 2: for a small mobile tower, but they're connected to the
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  Speaker 2: rest of the network using a satellite dish rather than
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  Speaker 2: a normal mobile tower which is connected using five and
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  Speaker 2: the fiber is very expensive to run. Particularly we've got
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  Speaker 2: to run out a very long way to a remote
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  Speaker 2: location where now we can just drop in one of
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  Speaker 2: these standalone units, the relatively economic to do it now,
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  Speaker 2: and it will just give a little bit of local coverage.
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  Speaker 1: And you were saying before that, you know that obviously
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  Speaker 1: the telecommunications industry is always changing. You know, there's always
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  Speaker 1: elements that are evolving. Then you throw into that mixed COVID.
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  Speaker 1: How have things been over the last year trying to
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  Speaker 1: manage an organization like Telstra during COVID.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it was a pretty dramatic period for us, and
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  Speaker 2: I can remember more or less infect it was almost
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  Speaker 2: to the day this time last year when we made
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  Speaker 2: the decision to move our team to work from home.
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  Speaker 2: And we literally made the decision on a Friday night,
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  Speaker 2: and over the course of the weekend we were twenty
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  Speaker 2: five thousand people to work from home. And so it
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  Speaker 2: went remarkably seamlessly, to be honest, but I think that's
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  Speaker 2: because we've made a lot of investments in technology and
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  Speaker 2: we've always had a philosophy Telster of working virtually. So
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  Speaker 2: what that means is that to support actually gender diversity
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  Speaker 2: and inclusion. We introduced this concept of all roles flex
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  Speaker 2: seven years ago so people could actually work from home
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  Speaker 2: and work virtually if it suited them to do something.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, we're just announced this year that we're implementing
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  Speaker 2: what we call location agnostic contracts. In other words, you know,
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  Speaker 2: when you go for a job, you get an employment letter,
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  Speaker 2: it normally tells you where you will be based. We've
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  Speaker 2: removed that clause so it's no longer a requirement if
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  Speaker 2: you want to sort of do a job that is
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  Speaker 2: horristic historial blace out in Melbourne and you want to
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  Speaker 2: be in Darwin, and that's what you can, I.
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  Speaker 1: Reckon, that's fantastic. It's a great way of looking at things.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, I do wonder and we've had this
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  Speaker 1: discussion many times on our show about you know, whether
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  Speaker 1: we're going to see more people moving to the regions,
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  Speaker 1: places like Darwin for example, you know, and whether the
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  Speaker 1: populations in places like Darwin will grow as a result
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  Speaker 1: of what I've seen with COVID. And I guess if
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  Speaker 1: you've got organizations like Telstra that are happy to see
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  Speaker 1: their workforce work from you know, wherever, then hopefully we
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  Speaker 1: do see parts of regional Australia expand.
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  Speaker 2: I think you will. In fact, I think the stats
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  Speaker 2: show that Darwin population is growing at the moment. And interestingly,
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  Speaker 2: I was in Geelong, which is a reasonal you know,
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  Speaker 2: may fairly large reasonal town outside of Melbourne last week
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  Speaker 2: and Geelong's growing faster than ever, whereas in Melbourne. I
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  Speaker 2: think the stats show that they've had about three thousand
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  Speaker 2: people a month's leave the Melbourne area over the last
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  Speaker 2: six months. So we're definitely seeing a move to regional
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  Speaker 2: and rural Australia. I think it really poses interesting questions about,
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  Speaker 2: you know, what the future of the CB do, and
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  Speaker 2: maybe that becomes somewhere where we go for arts and
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  Speaker 2: culture and sports and entertainment. So I think it's an
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  Speaker 2: exciting time.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it certainly is. How I do want to ask
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  Speaker 1: you before we wrap up this morning, I know that
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  Speaker 1: Telstra has donated a couple of vehicles to the Michael
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  Speaker 1: Long Foundation to help them to deliver their education programs.
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  Speaker 1: This sounds like a great initiative.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Now, look, we've had a great partnership with the
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  Speaker 2: Michael Long Foundation. I caught up with Michael yesterday. They're
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  Speaker 2: making a real, really significant difference to young Indigenous people
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  Speaker 2: and you know, practically obviously that means them getting out
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  Speaker 2: into community and so they cover a lot of current,
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  Speaker 2: a lot of territory. So we thought we've given a
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  Speaker 2: couple of vehicles with which to support the great work
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  Speaker 2: that they're doing and you know, we're just happy to
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  Speaker 2: be involved.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, good stuff. Well, Telstra CEO Andy Penn, it's been
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  Speaker 1: great to speak with you while you're in Darwin. Thanks
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  Speaker 1: so much for your time this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you.
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