Chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin told a business outlook briefing on Monday that these assets did not provide any means to differentiate the company's services from those of its rivals.
“Those are not assets from which we derive a competitive differentiation — we still need them, they’re still necessary — but we think that there’s a stronger monetisation opportunity from continuing to access those towers but having the management, the rentals, all that managed by another party,” she said.
The briefing provided an indication of Optus strategy in the year ahead and included brief presentations by managing director Networks Lambo Kanagaratnam, Enterprise managing director Chris Mitchell and managing director Marketing & Revenue, Matt Williams, apart from Bayer Rosmarin.
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Earlier this month, the telco reported a loss of $27 million for the first six months of its 2020-21 financial year, describing this as a challenging period.
Bayer Rosmarin was, however, bullish about the future, pointing to analysis by management consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers that had calculated the benefits of getting 5G right.
“Using PwC’s geo-spatial economic analysis, we have estimated that the deployment of competitive 5G networks could boost the Australian economy by a cumulative $130 billion over the decade to 2030 – and create 205,000 net new jobs," she said.
"Realising these benefits is dependent upon setting policies that encourage investment and a competitive environment. Without these, up to $55 billion of the predicated benefits of 5G will be put at risk.”
She said telecommunications was a fundamental part of "our lifestyle, our economy, and our nation’s success".
"This has been proven again and again during last summer’s devastating bushfires and this year’s unprecedented pandemic. Given the criticality of telecommunications it’s vital that we look ahead to consider how we can sustain and grow our sector at the time when it’s needed more than ever.”
