Blue-chip ASX dividend share Telstra Group Ltd (ASX: TLS) is a strong candidate for future passive income, in my view.
Yes, it already pays a fairly large dividend yield to shareholders – its last two declared dividends come to a grossed-up dividend yield of 5.9%, including franking credits.
But, what I'm more attracted to Telstra as an ASX dividend share is its outlook for future growth of the dividend payments, as well as the resilient nature of its earnings.
The ASX telco share is projected by experts to see steady growth of the dividend payout all the way to 2029.
Let's look at what's predicted for the company in 2029.
FY29 projections for Telstra shares
Broker UBS is optimistic about what the company can achieve in the coming years.
In FY25, the broker is expecting Telstra to deliver $23.9 billion of revenue, $2.28 billion of net profit after tax (NPAT) and pay a dividend per share of 19 cents.
But, by FY29, UBS projects Telstra could achieve revenue of $26.3 billion (up 10% in four years), net profit of $3.3 billion (up 44%) and a dividend per share of 27 cents (up 42%).
At the current Telstra share price, that forecast payout translates into a grossed-up dividend yield of 8.7%.
There may be a few businesses out there with larger dividend yields, but I think Telstra's defensive nature makes it very attractive in the current environment.
Ongoing growth of the blue-chip ASX dividend share
The company has demonstrated its ability to continue growing its underlying profit in the last few results, despite the headwinds of inflation and a weaker economic environment.
For example, in the latest report, the FY25 half-year result, Telstra reported that its total income rose 0.9% to $11.8 billion, underlying operating profit (EBITDA) grew 5.8% to $4.2 billion, net profit for Telstra shareholders increased 6.5% to $1 billion and the interim dividend per share was hiked by 5.6% to 9.5 cents.
The key division for the blue-chip ASX dividend share, in my opinion, is the mobile segment. Most households seem to place a very high importance on their phone for communication, entertainment, work, learning, online banking, shopping, social media and so on. In HY25, mobile handheld users grew 2.5% and mobile service revenue increased 3.1% thanks to handheld user price changes and wholesale.
The mobile segment just keeps growing.
It wouldn't surprise me if Telstra is able to grow its user base and average revenue per user (ARPU) every year between now and FY29 thanks to Australia's rising population, the increasingly digital nature of Australian life and the transition to 5G (and eventually 6G).
I'm optimistic about the future for Telstra.
