Telstra: A partner in telecommunications
The strength of Australia's Telstra Corporation, one of the most advanced telecommunications carriers in the Asia-Pacific, has led two more international companies to choose Australia as their regional business gateway.
Bay Networks Inc. has selected Sydney as the hub for one of the world's largest and most sophisticated telecommunications sales and support networks. Through a close strategic relationship with Telstra, Bay Networks' clients in Southeast Asia, Japan, India and Korea will gain toll-free voice and data access to Bay's services via leading-edge telecommunications connections.
"Telstra was seen to be the best equipped to serve the Asia- Pacific region with this type of service," said Steve Wood, Bay's regional director for South Asia-Pacific. "They have the product and the successful track record to back their tender."
In the hospitality industry, Accor Asia Pacific (AAPC), part of the largest hotel group in the world, is to establish its international reservations center in Perth.
General manager of AAPC's reservations services, Fran Walton, said: "Telstra has been the ideal Asia-Pacific regional partner, with its coordinating capabilities, which included professional services, government liaison, access to the latest telecommunications technologies and the allocation of a project manager to facilitate the entire move."
AAPC is the fifth hospitality company to work with Telstra to set up a regional function in Australia. Increasingly, the telecommunications carrier is operating in an advisory capacity for global corporations of all kinds wishing to access the Asia- Pacific market.
Among other blue chip multinational companies choosing Telstra for communications support in the Asia-Pacific region are Ericsson, SITA, IBM, Data General, American Express, Digital, BP, Fujitsu, Novell, Reuters, Unisys and Cathay Pacific.
These corporations are attracted not only by Australia's major advantages as a business location but by Telstra's technological sophistication and, in particular, by its strong track record in the Asian region.
Telstra is unique among major world carriers in its experience and its range of activities in the Asia-Pacific, combining a Western management style with a sensitive understanding of regional politics and cultural needs. The company has recently identified four main areas within Asia for investment in telecommunications: Indonesia, China, the Indian subcontinent and Indochina (particularly Vietnam).
In fact, Telstra already has a strong presence in these markets and has built up unrivaled local expertise and knowledge.
In Indonesia, Telstra is part of the MGTI consortium recently awarded a long-term contract to build and operate telephone networks in Central Java. The consortium, which includes some of the most impressive names in world telecommunications, will invest A$1 billion in Java between now and the end of the century. Telstra is also part of a joint venture developing private radio services in Jakarta, soon to be extended to other Indonesian cities.
In China, Telstra opened a Beijing office last year and is forming relationships with a number of local companies and authorities. Telstra is pursuing opportunities in total network design and management, optical fiber transmission, advanced intelligent network services, mobile networks and many other areas.
In India, a Telstra joint venture known as Modi Telstra launched India's first cellular mobile service in Calcutta late last year, serving a population of some 11 million people. Telstra has a representative office in New Delhi and regards India as a key market in its strategy for international business growth.
In Vietnam, Telstra has been helping to develop the country's telecommunications system since the mid-1980s. Under a 10-year business cooperation contract, this partnership (with a committed investment by Telstra of some A$250 million) has provided satellite earth stations, international and domestic exchanges, equipment, components, training and management services.
The Australian company is a major investor in the new TVH submarine optical fiber cable linking Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong. Telstra also has long-term partnerships in Cambodia and Laos.
Among many other initiatives, Telstra has a successful mobile telecommunications joint venture in Sri Lanka, has launched a new digital DAMA-Net satellite service in the Pacific Islands and has a 10-year business cooperation contract with the Ministry of Communications in the Central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan.
Telstra is also a founding member of the satellite-based networks INTELSAT and Inmarsat and is a major inventor in undersea communications cable systems. Chief among these is the 16,500 kilometer South Pacific Network, which provides Australasia's high-capacity, high-speed optical fiber links to global and regional centers.
Telstra's director of Global Business Services, Theo Tsapepas, said: "Credentials like these make us the ideal partner for multinational companies seeking to access the Asia-Pacific and also for telecommunications organizations within the region wishing to develop their own systems and networks."