Telstra shareholders are the latest winners in the half-year reporting season, with the telco giant announcing it will pay out $1.8 billion in dividends.

Overall Telstra saw profits for the first half of the year lift 22 per cent to $2.08 billion.

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That is up from $1.74 billion for the same period last year. However, revenue from ordinary activities was down two per cent to $12.72 billion.

Shareholders will receive a fully-franked interim dividend 15 cents per share. They can also opt to use their dividends to buy a bigger stake in the company via the dividend reinvestment plan.

Announcing the huge half-year profits, Telstra chief executive David Thodey claimed: “Our customers remain our highest priority. We are committed to improving the way we interact with our customers every day, providing more personalised service as well as being more responsive to their needs by keeping them informed, delivering new products and services as well as offering better value.”

Telstra is the second major company to announce multi-billion half year profits. Yesterday the Commonwealth Bank announced profits of $4.6 billion profits, and said it would pay $3 billion of that in dividends.

The other major banks will announce their profits in the coming days. All are expected to be in the billions.

– with AAP