People Telecom picks Telstra and maybe iiNet Business-focused...

People Telecom picks Telstra and maybe iiNet

Business-focused telco People Telecom has signed a new AU$100 million agreement to resell Telstra services and flagged an interest in doing the same with iiNet.
The Telstra deal, which was announced in an e-mailed statement this afternoon, covers fixed wire and broadband services and will last until the end of 2007. It comes as a similar existing Telstra arrangement is due to end in July.

But the telco's chief executive officer Ryan O'Hare told ZDNet Australia via telephone that Telstra would definitely not be selling wholesale access to high-speed ADSL2+ services.

Telstra will only offer ADSL1 services at speeds of up to 1.5Mbps, while ADSL2+ offers up to 24Mps. Telstra is known to have ADSL2+ capability in some areas but has not yet started selling the high-speed services.

To alleviate this gap, People Telecom already has an arrangement with NEC's wholesale DSL division NEXTEP and is interested in building a similar bridge with iiNet.

Financially troubled iiNet announced on May 26 its new partner PowerTel would provide wholesale access to iiNet's extensive broadband network, in an attempt to wring greater returns from the infrastructure.

O'Hare said iiNet's move certainly offered People Telecom greater opportunities.