Telstra launches business-to-business telepresence conferencing

Stuart Corner
Friday, 03 July 2009 10:29

IT Industry - Strategy

Telstra has added a business-to-business connectivity function to its Cisco Telepresence managed videoconferencing service, enabling businesses with the Cisco gear installed to set up ad-hoc videoconferences with each other.

The service was foreshadowed by iTWire when we reported the launch of Telstra's managed Telepresence service in mid 2008, and in May Telstra's executive director for convergent sales, Paul Geason, told iTWire that Telstra Enterprise & Government had about 20 customers in various stages of installing their own telepresence facilities and that Telstra would launch the 'business-to-business-exchange facility in July.
Philip Jones, executive director, Telstra Product Management said the new Business to Business TelePresence service was the second enhanced Cisco TelePresence capability to be offered to the market and "During the next 18 months Telstra will continue to enhance our customer offering with opex-based charging models and network based one touch scheduling making it easier to connect intercompany meetings across Australia."
 
Telstra says its Business to-Business Telepresence service will be charged on a simple recurring monthly fee on a twelve month contract that covers service activation and assurance, as well as access to its Next IP network on an unlimited use basis.
 
In November 2008, Cisco and Telstra announced a strategic alliance "designed to deliver a managed services platform to customers that enables Telstra to deploy advanced technologies such as Cisco unified communications and Cisco TelePresence." Cisco and Telstra say they are entering into a new collaborative business model designed to drive market growth and foster adoption of advanced technologies in the market place.

Other Cisco Telepresence service providers, BT & AT&T launched intercompany services in September and December last year respectively  And Tata Communications, which operates both private and public Cisco Telepresence facilities, announced plans in May to set up a Global Meeting Exchange to support virtual meetings between private and public Cisco TelePresence rooms. It said last week that the facility would be available before year end.