Optus evolves Optus Evolve, its IP-MPLS service

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 24 June 2008 11:19

Your IT - Home IT

Optus has added SIP trunking and Internet access services to its MPLS network, Optus Evolve, launched last October.

They are the first new modules since the launch. In the pipeline are ethernet services, due towards the end of this year, according to Scott Mason, general manager products and services, Optus business. "And then we have a whole series of enhancements an also on our radar are things like video," he said.

Optus has just installed Cisco Telepresence videoconferencing facilities in its own premises in Melbourne and Sydney and Mason said that providing these facilities to customers was "definitely something we are looking at integrated with Evolve video." (Telstra has just announced plans to do thi s as a managed service)

SIP trunking will enable companies to extend the functions of a single, centrally located PBX to IP phones in multiple office. Optus several years ago launched IP telephony services for corporate customers based on Nortel technology but Mason said this had not taken off. "We are exiting the market. Corporate customers just do not seem to have the appetite for it."

Optus Evolve Internet offers customers choice with respect to speed, bandwidth and access modes. According to Optus, it offers improved reporting and a single web portal to monitor performance. res and affordability.

Optus Evolve is a new IP-VPN/MPLS network based on Juniper core and edge routers that Optus said, would over time, replace its original Cisco based IP-VPN/MPLS network. "That migration is in train and will continue over the next couple of years," Mason said.

Optus has to date named three significant customers for the new network: Law firm Deacons; St George Bank - which is using it to connect 400 branches - and Luxiottica, the largest eyewear retailer and manufacturer in the world., which trades in Australia under the OPSM, Sunglass Hut, Laubman & Pank, Oakley and Budget Eyewear brands.