Holbrook-born Telstra CEO Vicki Brady visits Wagga

Recently-appointed Telstra CEO Vicki Brady was born and raised in Holbrook.

"It was a great place to grow up as a kid - lots of freedom, great community," Ms Brady said.

Her visit to Wagga was familiar but she said the city had changed a lot since she lived nearby.

"Wagga is thriving," Ms Brady said.

"The level of development and growth - it's so exciting.

"In a post-COVID world, you can see there are some major regional areas that are just doing so well and it's been wonderful to see it here in Wagga and see the innovation."

But Ms Brady's Riverina visit wasn't to catch up with old friends.

"Having grown up here ... I just think there's no better way to connect and really understand what's happening than being here in the community," she said.

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With an ever-growing tree changer trend and Wagga's goal of reaching 100,000 population by 2038, more demand is being put on mobile networks like Telstra's.

That means working and pre-planning with councils like Wagga City.

"If you're building a new area or new housing development, it's so much easier to plan infrastructure at the build stage," Ms Brady said.

"Rather than it all happening, it's been built, people move in and then we discover there's a new area needing coverage."

While Telstra covers 99.5 per cent of the population, that coverage only accounts for a third of Australia's landmass.

The CEO said she had a local discussion about certain roads "where calls drop out", which is why the federal government Mobile Black Spot Program exists.

As well as regional coverage, Ms Brady said protecting Australians from further data breaches was "top of mind".

"These cyber criminals are incredibly sophisticated and so it's 24/7, you've can never be complacent in this area," she said.

According to the CEO, Telstra are blocking about 330 million possible scam messages a month, which accounts for about 40 per cent of inbound traffic, and 10 to 15 million calls a month.

Other than speaking to members of the community, Ms Brady also spent time at CSU to check out the university's Global Digital Farm initiative for which Telstra is providing independent data.

Wagga not-for-profit organisations and community groups are also being encouraged to apply for the first round of the Connected Communities Grants Program.

The $200,000 2023 round offers grants of up to $10,000.

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