Tellabs opens Australian HQ

Stuart Corner
Sunday, 22 October 2006 18:38

IT Industry - Deals

Telecoms equipment supplier, Tellabs, has chosen Melbourne as the location for its Australian HQ, primarily because of the state’s commitment to the information communication and technology (ICT) industry, according to Sanjay Patel, vice president and general manager for Tellabs Asia Pacific.

However the company also has a major contract with Telstra, secured late in 2005 to provide it MultiServicePlus product as part of Telstra’s next-generation network upgrade.

According to Patel, "this solution, already widely used in the United States, Japan, the Philippines and Malaysia, will enable Telstra to transition from current to next-generation technology without interruptions, upgrading services while maintaining connectivity and customer traffic."

When Telstra detailed its NGN plans at its November 2005 strategy briefing COO, Greg Winn, said: "We will simplify at the multiservice edge, with a single operating support system architecture, with an eight times speed increase. We're going to remove over 1,000 edge devices and we're going to support the common services to our customers, regardless of the access network. So this will provide connectivity for the business customers, be it Frame Relay, ATM, ethernet over a common IP core. We will provide support for our customers who need to migrate in a timely fashion off their legacy data."

Tellabs products being supplied to Telstra, which include the Tellabs 8800 multiservice router series, will be progressively phased in at Telstra over the next three to four years.

Tellabs plans to increase its workforce in Australia but also plans to outsource some of the work to local Victorian ICT companies.

Tellabs' second quarter 2006 revenue was $US549 million up 19 percent from $US463 million in the second quarter of 2005. For the year 2005, Tellabs’ revenue was $US1.9 billion up 53 percent on 2004.