Telstra wins $62.5m five year comms contract from AGL

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 02 December 2009 03:36

IT Industry - Strategy

Telstra has been awarded a $62.5m five-year whole of business telecommunications contract by AGL Energy for a wide area IP network to replace AGL's three current data networks and increase capacity between AGL's 12 main sites by between four and 10 times.

AGL chief information officer, Owen Coppage, said "Central to the service is enhanced network security to help AGL remain ahead of the game in meeting our security commitments that are becoming increasingly important as more customers manage their services online.

"Business continuity and disaster planning are critical within this sector so we've built in additional data links across all of AGL's major sites that will allow us to maintain a consistency of service for AGL's customers in the event of a problem."

The new network will simultaneously support data, voice and videoconferencing using Polycom HD videoconferencing equipment and continues a long established relationship between the two companies.

Telstra says it will provide a fully managed service based on its Next IP network that will allow sites to be quickly added or removed and capacity up-scaled or downscaled as AGL's needs change. These services will include managed security and increased call centre capacity and services that enable customers to be transferred across AGL call centres.

Telstra will also supply mobile voice and data services  including mobile handsets, wireless broadband services and BlackBerry devices.