Australia's Telstra Added 318,000 Mobile Customers In 2Q"

SYDNEY -(Dow Jones)- Telstra Corp. (TLS), Australia's largest telephone company, said Wednesday it added 318,000 mobile customers in its second quarter ended Dec. 31.

The company, which reports its half year result Thursday, now has more than eight million mobile customers, it said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange.

The second quarter's growth in mobile customers was "exceptionally strong", Telstra said.

The rate of growth in mobile customers is faster than analysts on average expected, and suggests Telstra's revenue growth in the first half will be stronger than forecast.

David Moffatt, general manager of Telstra's consumer and marketing division, said calendar 2004 was the second successive year in which the company had increased mobile subscriber numbers by more than 1 million.

Telstra estimates around 88% of Australia's 20 million people now own a mobile handset.

-By Stephen Wright, Dow Jones Newswires;

61-2-8235-2950; stephen.wright@dowjones.com

-Edited by Paul Godby

(END) Dow Jones Newswires"

Posted to the site on 9th February 2005