Displaying items by tag: Telstra

Telstra, one of the connectivity suppliers for the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, supported an unprecedented 94 terabytes of data consumed on its network over the four-day event – the highest ever recorded at the event, including double the 5G traffic recorded in 2024.

Telstra, one of the connectivity suppliers for the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, supported an unprecedented 94 terabytes of data consumed on its network over the four-day event – the highest ever recorded at the event, including double the 5G traffic recorded in 2024.

There’s been good progress restoring services in south east Queensland and northern New South Wales today, in the wake of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, according to Telstra.

Australia's largest telco Telstra and global consulting firm Accenture have finalised details of their data and AI joint venture (JV), announced last month.

Australia's largest telecoms provider Telstra has partnered with equipment vendor Ericsson on a four year project to build what they claim will be the first programmable network in the Asia Pacific region.

The Federal Court has found that Telstra made false or misleading representations relating to the upload speed of residential broadband internet services supplied to nearly 9,000 of its Belong customers, following court action by the competition watchdog, the ACCC.

GUEST OPINION Farhoud Salimi – Chief Technology Officer at Telstra Health: Connected care represents the cornerstone of healthcare's future within Australia—where seamless information flow will drive enhanced patient outcomes through more accessible and actionable data. Today's greatest barriers to improved care delivery are the technological and organisational silos operating in isolation, hampering collaboration and operational efficiency. We also stand at the cusp of a transformative era as technologies like Cloud Computing and Generative AI mature, promising unprecedented benefits for both healthcare practitioners and patients.

GUEST OPINION:  With AI reshaping industries at unprecedented rates, findings from the 2024 CISCO Live Report suggest Australian companies are trailing, with only four percent ready to leverage the technology, a decline from the previous year.

Across APAC use cases for AI and cloud adoption are countless including enhancing cybersecurity through to transforming network resiliency, but there’s much more to be leveraged here. 

For example as  companies continue facing fast-paced changes to customer experience needs, including new demands for seamless digital experiences, real-time support and hyper-personalisation – sophisticated AI-driven capabilities becomes critical.

Some of Australia’s largest companies are betting big on AI too, including Telstra’s recent $700m AI investment with Accenture. 

Yet many businesses struggle to translate AI investment into tangible business value. AI projects often remain siloed, security concerns slow adoption, and enterprises lack the AI-ready infrastructure needed to scale.

But the remit is clear: get AI ready or risk falling behind. 

This poses questions company executives need to be asking, but first let’s get clear on where the key challenges lie:

Infrastructure Limitations:

Many organisations lack the necessary IT infrastructure to support AI initiatives – this hamstrings innovation efforts from the outset. Only 13% of Aussie companies possess the graphics processing units (GPUs) to handle future AI demands, and a mere 17% have comprehensive security measures to protect data within AI models .

Talent Shortage:

It’s no secret there’s a scarcity of skilled AI professionals in Australia, presenting a huge barrier to AI readiness. This talent gap limits companies' ability to effectively deploy and manage AI solutions.

Unmet Return on Investment (ROI) Expectations: 

Despite substantial investments in recent years, many Aussie companies are finding that AI initiatives are not delivering on anticipated returns. This has led to skepticism and slowed adoption rates.

These challenges aren’t industry specific either, but remain an issue across the board. So how do we bolster the AI adoption and readiness of Aussie companies? There are six questions forward-thinking CEO’s and CTO’s need to be asking themselves about AI:

1. Are we clear on our AI strategy and use cases?

With almost 70% of Australian enterprises investing in AI, and an additional 23% saying AI adoption is in their 12 month road map, it’s clear that Australian companies know AI readiness is a must-do, but a clear strategy is essential to maximise its value.

• What business problems are we solving with AI? And what could we be solving?
• Do we have a clear roadmap for integrating AI into our operations, products, or customer experience?

2. Do we have the right data infrastructure in place?

In Australia, 80% of consumers now expect personalised digital interactions and yet only 35% of enterprises say they’re confident in their AI data readiness to meet this demand.  And customer experience is just one consideration in your AI infrastructure plan.

• Is our data accurate, accessible, protected and well-organised?
• Are we leveraging internal and external data sources to unlock AI’s potential? 
• Do we have AI-Optimised customer experience (CX) infrastructure?
• What support should we invest in to do this better?

3. Do we have the right talent and expertise?

With the demand for AI infrastructure accelerating, the industry-wide skills gap will continue to hamstring AI adoption if not addressed in an innovative way. In-house talent is just one part of the equation.

• Do we have skilled data scientists, AI engineers, and domain experts?
• What channel partners and external experts are required to meet our strategy needs?
• Are our employees being upskilled to work alongside AI systems?

4. Is our organization culturally prepared for AI adoption?

AI readiness isn’t just about technology - embedding the right mindset into company culture is critical for adoption, too. Change is often met with resistance, and needs to be managed accordingly especially when it can be interpreted as a threat to peoples jobs.

• Are we fostering an AI mindset across teams?
• What is our plan to address change management and employee concerns about AI integration?
• How will we communicate these changes effectively to all stakeholders including leadership, employees, clients, investors and customers?

5. Are our governance and ethical frameworks robust?

As Australia moves increasingly towards tightening regulations around AI and AI adoption, enterprises are responsible for ensuring their AI models are fair, transparent, and compliant. And third party vendors and partners need to be held accountable, too.

• Do we have safeguards to ensure AI decisions are transparent, fair, and compliant with regulations?
• How are we mitigating potential biases in our AI models now and into the future?
• Is the technology we utilise from third party vendors and partners transparent? How do we hold them accountable to this?

6. Are we measuring the ROI of AI initiatives effectively?

While AI investment in Australia continues to grow, only 30% of Australian companies have clear, measurable ROI metrics on this ⁵. To drive successful AI adoption getting clarity on ROI is vital.

• Do we have metrics to evaluate the success of AI-driven projects? 
• How are we ensuring AI investments directly align with business goals and drive growth?
• Do we have the right strategic AI partners on board to achieve these objectives?

To understand how AI ready your company is, start by asking questions. Whilst AI remains cloudy and uncharted territory for many, have the courage to dive in and embrace it – the risk of not doing so is increasingly exponential.

Telstra in collaboration with telecoms vendor Ericsson and mobile chipset OEM Qualcomm claims to have set a record uplink speed of 516 Mbps, surpassing the previous record of 447 Mbps set in October 2024.

COMPANY NEWS: Telstra and CommBank confirmed today they have extended their existing anti-scam and fraud collaboration and announced the use of new ‘fraud Indicator’ technology to help protect Australians from identity theft.

COMPANY NEWS: Payment infrastructure services company Australian Payments Plus (AP+) and Telstra have partnered to offer identity verification via ConnectID to customers activating selected Telstra mobile services.

Telstra has partnered with Ericsson and mobile chipset maker MediaTek, to claim a new benchmark peak downlink speed of 9.4 Gbps on its live commercial 5G Standalone (SA) network.

Telstra's global arm Telstra International has announced a plan to upgrade its international network, which includes boosting the capacity of its subsea cable infrastructure from its current 235 Tbps to more than 800 Tbps of total lit capacity.

Property fund manager ISPT and Telstra have announced that they are transforming office connectivity with 5G DAS tech, ensuring reliable, high-speed coverage in lifts, carparks, and more - with the first deployment in Sydney’s new Tech Central precinct, Sydney, with other sites on the radar.

Telstra has announced a proposed AI joint venture (JV) with global consulting firm Accenture, in which Australia's largest telco would reportedly invest A$100 million a year over seven years for a total of A$700 million.

Telstra has announced it is collaborating with SpaceX’s Starlink to bring Satellite-to-Mobile text message capability to Telstra customers in Australia.

GUEST RESEARCH: Australia is undergoing a significant transformation in how businesses approach design, with increasing recognition of its critical role in driving operations and innovation.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has hit Australia's largest telco Telstra with a more than $3 million penalty for failing to comply with emergency call rules during a technical disruption at its Triple Zero emergency call centre.

The Mapping the Digital Gap report has found internet access in Australia’s remote and very remote communities improved in the past two years as 4G/5G, Wi-Fi and satellite infrastructure is bolstered across regional Australia.

The telecommunications industry has launched the “Love Is” Tech Abuse Awareness campaign, an initiative, led by Telco Together Foundation in collaboration with its member organisations and eSafety.