A spokeswoman for the company said the proposed changes would move 463 existing Telstra roles and 208 contractor jobs to Asia over the next 12 months "to support our growth in the region".

The losses come from Telstra’s Global Services division as the company ramps up its ambitions in Asia.

Telstra staff were officially told of the plans late on Wednesday afternoon.

“This proposal would involve outsourcing of functions and services to industry partners in Asia,” Telstra said on Wednesday.

“To compete effectively internationally we need to have resources in the region and the capability to scale rapidly to meet demand.

“These are not decisions we take lightly and we will consult and work closely with our people on this proposal. If a decision is made to proceed we will aim to redeploy as many affected employees as possible.”

Community and Public Sector Union President Michael Tull said staff were shocked and saddened by the news.

"The affected workers are part of Telstra’s network applications and services division which handles cloud computing and delivers services for big business and government," he said.

“This is a very profitable and growing part of the business and represents the future of the Telstra. So it’s shocking that in effect Telstra is prepared to outsource its future. We are moving into a very worrying phase of offshoring.

“Offshoring started with call centre and IT help desk roles – which has cost thousands of jobs, ruined careers and denied young Australians entry-level jobs.

"And as Telstra was doing that it was also working to build the skills and technical savvy of offshore companies so that they could take more jobs. Now it is moving into ever more highly skilled work. It’s bad news for workers, and bad news for the economy as we offshore our capacity for future innovation.”