(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
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| Qantas, Telstra Sign Contract for Large ATM Network
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August 26, 1998 (SYDNEY, Australia) -- Qantas Airways Ltd. signed a contract
with Telstra Corp. for construction and management of a telecommunications
network for the Australian airline.
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Telstra will partner with Advantra, Cisco Systems, Northern Telecom and
Memorex Telex to build one of Australia's largest ATM backbone networks.
The contract is for six years of fully managed service and it represents
one of Telstra's largest commercial deals.
Telstra will build and manage all portions of the new Qantas network.
Specifically, it will integrate the airline's backbone network management
functions into a single Qantas Care Team and provide end-to-end management
of its communications environment.
Telstra is breaking new commercial ground in securing the Qantas business,
according to Ziggy Switkowski, a Telstra group managing director.
"We are building a service around the customer. Telstra has set new benchmarks
in customer care and delivery that I believe are unmatched in Australia.
We are now a critical part of the Qantas team, not just a supplier,"
Switkowski said.
Qantas CEO James Strong said the new network will be cost-effective,
robust and innovative.
"This new technology will create additional capacity for the airline's
day-to-day business, in particular improved services for our customers.
The new telecommunications network will increase the size and stability
of the airline's existing voice and communication systems," Strong said.
The new Qantas domestic telecom network will be built around a high-speed,
high-capacity asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) core linking all major
Qantas nodes throughout Australia using Telstra's Accelerate ATM (AATM)
network, with Accelerate Frame Relay connecting peripheral sites.
Telstra is developing a switching infrastructure with equipment supplied
by Cisco Systems for data, and by Nortel for voice and switching, both
of which are supported by Memorex Telex.
Telstra will provide end-to-end management of the entire Qantas network
up to the LAN connection point, and including the Qantas campus environments,
such as airports, using its Platinum Internetworking Management Service
(IMS Platinum).
A key aspect is the integration of the Qantas backbone network management
functions into a single Telstra managed "Qantas Care Team." The team
will be based at Telstra's office in the Sydney central business district.
This Care Team integrates the relevant internal functions into Qantas'
processes and requirements to deliver superior service levels.
Telstra will require a year to finalize design, configuration, testing
and construction of the core network. Telstra seeks to complete deployment
in late 1999. This will be followed by a five-year period of management
of the operations. Additional design, systems integration and overall
project management functions will be provided by Advantra, with Memorex
Telex supplying a full network audit and field maintenance services
for the entire WAN.
(Neil Munro, Asia BizTech Correspondent)
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