TransACT & Neighbourhood Cable to offer Google Apps

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 24 February 2010 14:15

Business IT - Networking

ACT based broadband network operator, TransACT and its Neighbourhood Cable subsidiary have announced plans to offer the Google Apps range of cloud-based communication, collaboration and security products to their customers.

According to TransACT "The Google Apps product offering will allow TransACT and [Neighbourhood Cable] to deliver services on top of its existing network capabilities, bundling mobile services, smart phones, fixed line services, netbooks and applications together into a seamless experience for customers."

For small business the service is also being promoted as an alternative to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. According to TransACT, "When integrated to a mobile service, the Google Apps products can also replace the cost and complexity of running an enterprise mobile server to provide your mobile email service."

TransACT and Neighbourhood Cable CEO, Ivan Slavich said: "TransACT and [Neighbourhood Cable] are really well placed to provide SAAS products, as we are the owner and operator of a high performance data network in the ACT and regional Victoria, with NBN-like access speeds of up to 100 Mbps available to our customers."

No definite launch date has been given. TransACT said only that Google Apps products and services would be available "in the coming months."

TransACT's initiative follows that of AAPT which announced late last year that it would offer Google Apps to its business customers. The company had earlier announced  plans to use Google Apps internally for video communications, intranet and email.

It is just a year since Google launched a reseller channel for Google Apps and on 22 February, in a posting on Google's blog site to commemorate the anniversary, Stephen Cho, director, Google Apps channels, said: "Since then, millions of businesses have gone Google - and our resellers, too, have gained momentum. With nearly 1,000 Google Apps authorised resellers from more than 50 countries now building successful Google Apps practices."

He added: "In a recent mark of this progress, the MSPmentor 100 Report for 2010, which ranks top managed service providers worldwide, reports that already 22 percent of these top MSPs are now promoting Google Apps to their clients."