Telstra is shipping 170 domestic jobs to India in an attempt to cut costs here and grow its business overseas.

Reports say the job cuts equate to about 7 per cent of the company’s Network Applications & Services division. Telstra said roles in ‘backoffice jobs’ such as IT service operations and resource management would be sent offshore to partners in India.

"This is about growth, this is about supporting our clients as they move offshore and supporting our international clients in those markets," said David Burns, head of Telstra's Network Applications and Services divisions, “we want to be able to support that strategy. We need to be able to scale quickly, we need to be able to meet demand, we need to be able to support our customers as they move into that South East Asian region and we need to be competitive as we do that."

Telstra has entered into discussion with unions over the planned relocation of jobs, cuts are set to start in October providing no complications arise form union talks. All the cuts have come from sites in Hobart and Canberra.

This is by no means a new policy for the company; over the past two years Telstra has cut and sent offshore more than 2500 call centre and back-office jobs.