Telstra CEO Sol Trujilo says the company could lose A$2 billion ($1.4 billion) in revenue if a competitor builds the planned National Broadband Network (NBN).
But Trujillo has told US investors that the project will not threaten Telstra's revenue in the short-term, and have no effect on this year's financial guidance, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
He said the A$2 billion loss of revenue represents “at most a mid single-digit percentage of revenues.”
The Australian government last year excluded Telstra from the NBN tender process after the incumbent operator submitted a bid which the government said failed to match the intended scope of the project.
The remaining contenders include the Optus-led Terria consortium, Melbourne's Acacia and Canada's Axia NetMedia. SingTel-owned Optus is one of Telstra's main competitors.
Trujillo also stated that Telstra had other means of providing high-speed broadband, and may elect to focus on upgrading its NextG 3G network.