Telstra's underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 14.2 per cent to $3.3 billion over the half, due to large payments to NBN Co and an estimated $170 million in damage from the coronavirus pandemic, which caused declines in international roaming revenues and additional expenses for customer support. The pandemic also triggered $100 million in costs from the pause in previously planned job cuts. The redundancy program, which will eliminate a further 2200 jobs by the end of the calendar year, was restarted last week. Telstra increased its cost reduction target to $2.7 billion for the next financial year.