AAP

Telstra Corp says its business continues to be in very good shape and has reaffirmed its earnings guidance for the 2008 financial year.

Chief executive Sol Trujillo reiterated previous guidance, forecasting earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to rise between six per cent and eight per cent this financial year.

The boss of Australia's biggest telecommunications company also reaffirmed that earnings before interest and tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was forecast to increase between four per cent and five per cent.

Total revenue was expected to be up between three per cent and four per cent.

"I would like to reaffirm all our 2008 guidance and 2010 objectives," Mr Trujillo said in a presentation to an investor conference.

"The business continues to be in very good shape and the board remains committed to its dividend policy."

Mr Trujillo said Telstra now was more than two years into a corporate transformation designed to lift earnings.

He said the decline in EBIT, which had taken place until the first half of fiscal 2007, had been reversed.

"Our transformation is delivering strong financial and operational momentum," he said.

"We have put the customer at the centre of everything we do and every decision we make. We differentiate ourselves by delivering added value to our customers."

Mr Trujillo is aiming for 2.5 per cent to three per cent revenue growth a year to 2010 and similar EBITDA gains.

He said also that Telstra would cut 12,000 jobs by 2010.

Mr Trujillo said Telstra was investing in wireless broadband and other internet-delivery technologies to provide high-speed broadband across Australia.

He said a world class high-speed fixed broadband network needed to be integrated secure, flexible and with scale.

"The Australian government's proposed next generation network upgrade would be the largest fibre-to-the-node network by area in the world," he said.

"This is too important a task for Australia to appoint to those without a proven record, and it is also a risky investment," Mr Trujillo said.

"An investor needs to be confident that the returns on invested capital will justify the risks associated with that investment, such as potential technology changes, and not be undermined by uncertain regulatory outcomes," he said.

Mr Trujillo said the company's competitors claimed they were up to building the broadband network but their records proved otherwise.

"For example, nine months after being awarded nearly $1 billion of taxpayers' money to build the OPEL regional network, the SingTel Optus consortium failed to connect one service to one customer and, in the end, had its government grant rescinded," he said.

In a separate move, Telstra lodged a $5 million bond and handed over its network information to the government, as part of its bid for a national high-speed broadband network.

Telstra shares fell one cent to $4.58 and instalment receipts declined two cents to $2.97 as of the market close.