The NBN rollout continues to eat away at Telstra’s balance sheet, with the telco giant cutting its interim payout to shareholders.

It comes after a 28 per cent dive in first-half profit to $1.2 billion.

Telstra’s total revenue for the six months to December 31 fell 1.7 per cent to $12.59 billion amid “intense” competition.

Chief Executive Andrew Penn said the launch of the 5G network in the coming months would confirm mobile as the “engine room” of the business.

As for the NBN, he tells Ross Greenwood the company’s in a “transition”

“There’s a lot of structural change going on in the industry, a lot of it stems from the NBN.”

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