TelstraClear selected to build and run NZ research network

Stuart Corner
Monday, 05 December 2005 01:28

Business IT - Networking

The Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand (REANNZ) has chosen TelstraClear as the preferred managed service provider. TelstraClear and its subsidiary, Sytec, will run, manage and maintain the network.

REANNZ is a Government initiative to provide an ultra-high speed broadband connection linking universities and research organisations to each other and to similar organisations overseas. The network will be in service in the second half of 2006.

TelstraClear CEO, Allan Freeth, said that TelstraClear would lay fibre from its national fibre network to a series of points of presence (PoPs) throughout the country. Education and research institutes will then connect to the PoPs through an access provider. The network will have its dedicated 10Gbps wavelength on TelstraClear's core optical backbone network, providing a separate channel from TelstraClear's commercial network.

REANNZ chairman, Dr Jim Watson, said the next steps were to complete contract negotiations and receive approval from the shareholding ministers for the transactions required to implement and operate the new network. REANNZ is a Crown entity with the ministers of research science and technology and of finance as shareholders.

"This is a significant step forward in the development of a network that will connect New Zealand education and research institutes with peer organisations in more than 40 countries worldwide. It will allow real-time participation in the exciting world of modern science and use of new tools and techniques in research and education," said Watson.