Partnering wasn't a strong part of our mindset two years ago
In the vast and sun-scorched interior of Australia, a telecommunications giant is quietly reconsidering what it means to be powerful. Telstra CEO Vicki Brady, two years into reshaping one of the country's most dominant companies, is steering the telco toward agricultural technology — not by claiming new territory outright, but by learning the harder discipline of collaboration. Her wager is that the future of connectivity belongs not to those who control every node, but to those who know when to make room for others.
- Australia's agricultural sector is racing toward a $100 billion production target by 2030, and Telstra sees a narrow window to embed itself in that transformation before others do.
- Brady's pivot carries an implicit admission of institutional failure: for decades, Telstra's instinct was to guard its turf rather than grow the field — a posture she now says cost the company real opportunity.
- The backing of Zetifi, a regional Wi-Fi startup from Wagga Wagga, signals something almost counterintuitive for a telco giant — a willingness to amplify a competitor's signal rather than silence it.
- Strong half-year profits of $934 million give Brady the financial breathing room to experiment, but investor anxiety lingers after her predecessor's talk of becoming a 'global technology company' rattled confidence in Telstra's core identity.
- The real test is whether a company built on dominance can genuinely rewire its culture toward partnership — and whether agriculture becomes a new pillar of growth or a costly distraction from the business that built Telstra's strength.
Vicki Brady came to Telstra's top job with an idea that cut against the grain of everything the company had been: that its future depended not on owning the entire connectivity landscape, but on knowing when to step aside.
Two years after moving up from the CFO role, Brady is pointing Telstra toward agriculture — a sector the Australian Farmers Federation believes can grow from $75 billion to over $100 billion in annual production by 2030. For Telstra, that ambition opens a path to deploy IoT technology, satellite networks, and mobile infrastructure in ways the old company would never have entertained.
The clearest sign of the shift is Telstra's backing of Zetifi, a Wagga Wagga startup specialising in long-range Wi-Fi. Brady has been candid about what that partnership represents. 'Two years ago, we wouldn't have engaged in these conversations,' she said. 'Partnering wasn't a strong part of our mindset.' Now, Telstra is layering its own networks alongside complementary technologies from startups and other players — building infrastructure that serves farmers more completely than Telstra could manage alone.
Brady spent more than two decades watching the telco industry default to defence rather than imagination. Her warning is direct: 'If we don't, we risk others capturing that value over our networks.' The future, she believes, belongs to companies that can collaborate — not those that insist on monopoly.
The financial foundation is solid. Half-year profits rose 25.7 percent to $934 million, giving Brady room to move. But she is also navigating the shadow of her predecessor, Andy Penn, whose talk of Telstra becoming a global technology company unsettled investors who feared the core business was being abandoned. Brady's answer is deliberate: Telstra remains, at its heart, a telecommunications company — but one that can build new value on top of that foundation without dismantling it.
Whether a company shaped by decades of dominance can genuinely learn to share is the question that will define Brady's tenure. The agriculture pivot is the first real test of that transformation.
Vicki Brady arrived at Telstra's corner office with a conviction that felt almost heretical for a telecommunications executive: the company's future lay not in owning every piece of the connectivity puzzle, but in stepping back and letting others fill the gaps.
Two years into her tenure as CEO—having moved up from the chief financial officer role—Brady has begun reshaping how Telstra thinks about growth. The company is turning its attention toward agriculture, a sector the Australian Farmers Federation believes can expand from its current $75 billion in annual production to more than $100 billion by 2030. For Telstra, that expansion represents an opening to deploy internet of things technology, satellite networks, and mobile infrastructure in ways that would have been unthinkable under the old playbook.
The shift is not subtle. Brady has backed Zetifi, a Wagga Wagga-based startup that specializes in long-range Wi-Fi connectivity, and she has been explicit about why: Telstra needs to become comfortable with the idea that it will not always be the only connectivity provider on the field. "Two years ago, we wouldn't have engaged in these conversations," she said. "Partnering wasn't a strong part of our mindset." The company is now weaving together its own networks—mobile, IoT, and satellite—with complementary technologies from startups and other players, creating a layered infrastructure that serves agricultural operations more comprehensively than Telstra alone could manage.
This represents a fundamental reorientation of strategy. Brady spent more than two decades in telecommunications, long enough to watch opportunities slip away because the industry's default instinct was to defend what it already owned rather than imagine what could be built in collaboration. "If we don't," she said, "we risk others capturing that value over our networks." The comment carries a quiet warning: the future belongs to companies that can partner, not those that insist on monopoly.
The timing of this pivot is worth noting. Earlier this month, Telstra announced half-year results showing a 25.7 percent increase in profits to $934 million, with revenue climbing 7.6 percent. The company is financially healthy, which gives Brady room to experiment. But her predecessor, Andy Penn, had spoken about Telstra becoming a global technology company—a remark that spooked some investors, who worried the company was drifting away from its core business. Brady has moved to clarify that vision. Telstra remains, at its foundation, a telecommunications company. That will not change. But on top of that connectivity foundation, she sees an opportunity to partner and co-create with others, building new value without abandoning the old.
The question now is whether Telstra can actually execute this shift in mindset. A company that has spent decades as a dominant player in its market does not easily learn to share. Brady's challenge is to prove that Telstra can grow its core business while simultaneously building new revenue streams in agriculture and other non-traditional sectors—and that these two things can happen at the same time, without one cannibalizing the other. The next few years will show whether a telco giant can genuinely become a partner.
Citas Notables
If we don't work together, we risk others capturing that value over our networks.— Vicki Brady, Telstra CEO
I've seen opportunities pass by because we were defending what we had, instead of thinking about the larger opportunity that could be created if we worked together.— Vicki Brady, Telstra CEO
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why agriculture, specifically? Why not fintech or health tech or any of the other sectors Telstra could theoretically serve?
Agriculture is already moving toward digitalization, and the Australian Farmers Federation has a concrete target—$100 billion in production by 2030. That's not a vague aspiration. It's a roadmap. Telstra sees the infrastructure gap: farms need connectivity, sensors, data management. The company has the networks to help fill that gap.
But couldn't Telstra just build all of that itself? Why partner with Zetifi and others?
That's the old thinking Brady is trying to move past. Zetifi does long-range Wi-Fi better than Telstra probably could. If Telstra insists on owning every layer, it slows down and it misses the point. The real value is in the ecosystem working together.
Is this risky? What if Telstra invests in these partnerships and then the startups fail or get acquired by competitors?
Absolutely risky. But Brady's argument is that the bigger risk is doing nothing—letting other companies build the agricultural tech stack while Telstra sits on the sidelines defending its core business. She's betting that being part of the solution, even if you don't own all of it, is better than owning nothing.
How does this square with the fact that Telstra is still a dominant player in Australian telecommunications? Doesn't partnership feel like a step down?
Only if you measure success by market share in a single sector. Brady is measuring it differently—by the total value Telstra can help create and capture across multiple industries. It's a longer game, and it requires a different kind of confidence.