Telstra has won a Global Telecoms Business Award in recognition of the enormous strides the telecommunications company has taken as part of its business transformation under the leadership of CEO Sol Trujillo.

Simon Vye CEO Telstra Europe said “This award is a reflection of our commitment to innovation and this approach is carried on throughout the business, where ever we operate. Our customers have come to expect highly inventive and service driven products and this is a key reason why we are different from the majority of the market”.

In one of the biggest transformations ever undertaken by a global telecommunications carrier, Telstra is now almost two years into its five year transformation of implementing next generation networks, transforming its IT systems and introducing market-based management to improve its customers' experience. As the first stage of the important IT transformation project nears completion, Global Telecoms Business Magazine named Telstra winner of the annual Innovation Award for its IT transformation.

Sol said Telstra was transforming from a 20th century phone company into a world class media-communications company and its progress was supported by global strategic partners such as Accenture, IBM, Ericsson, and Alcatel-Lucent, which was producing world-leading results.

"The IT transformation is just one of Telstra's achievements to be recognised as the company began to deliver on its transformation goals. Telstra is delivering a range of achievements unmatched in the world. In retail broadband we achieved the unique double last half of winning market share from our competitors while also growing average revenue per user. Our mobile services revenue growth is almost double that of the leading European players and now matches the rates of US incumbents," he said.

The Global Telecom Business Magazine Award for innovation is the third international prize Telstra has received in the past six months. In March, the Telecom Asia Awards announced Telstra winner of the 'Best Telco Transformation Award.' In June Telstra received the Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific ICT Award for 'Next Generation Network Service Provider of the Year.'
Telstra's achievement in building its Next G™ network, the world's largest national 3G wireless broadband network - providing world leading speed - in a record 10 months continues to be recognised.

Furthermore, Telstra's wireless team has been announced as a finalist in the 2007 Best Change-maker category of the upcoming World Communication Awards (WCA). Telstra is also a finalist in the WCA's Best Mobile Operator category. Telstra's Next G™ network is also a finalist in this year's Wireless Broadband category of the InfoVision Awards and Telstra is the supporting partner for several of the 2007 3G A-List Awards finalists.

Sol said Telstra's IT transformation was on track and ultimately would reduce the number of IT systems from 1,250 to fewer than 300 by 2010.

"These outdated, overlapping systems were introduced and patched together over many years in different parts of the business as needs arose. Often they don't communicate with each other and just make it difficult to do business. "Transforming our IT and removing these systems will have enormous benefits for our staff, our customers and our shareholders alike," Sol said.