Telstra says fixed-line telephone customers shouldn't pay more if it is allowed to charge rivals what it wants to access its copper lines.
The telco giant is asking the competition regulator for permission to raise wholesale charges by 7.2 per cent.
It argues its fixed copper network costs will rise as rival telco customers, including Optus and iiNet, move on to the National Broadband Network.
But Telstra chief executive David Thodey argued customers would not be worse off if it had its way with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
"We don't like putting prices up but it doesn't mean because the wholesale price goes up the retail price does," he told reporters in Sydney.
The ACCC is not making a decision until the middle of next year but chairman Rod Sims has expressed concerns about Telstra's proposal to raise wholesale prices above a regulated price.
"This outcome would clearly not be in consumers' interests," Mr Sims said in a statement on Wednesday.
Mr Thodey said he "welcomed the clarity from the ACCC".
Earlier, the Telstra boss told an Australian Institute of Company Directors luncheon the company would transform in coming years, as more customers subscribed to its online and digital products.
"In another five years, it's going to be a completely different company," he said.
"It has to be. And how do you get large corporations to reinvent themselves? It's really hard."
But he told reporters later its copper network still had a future.
"That's a difficult question to answer because it depends on the speed of the NBN rollout," he said.
"However, fixed infrastructure will be a critical part of our business going forward."
Mr Thodey told the lunch Telstra would be reducing call centres staff numbers in future.
Telstra has meanwhile launched a new division, Telstra Health, which will enable patients to see a doctor over the internet at any time.
It has partnered with Swiss telemedicine company Medgate to create ReadyCare, which relays the information back to the patient's usual doctor.
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