Optus

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SingTel Optus Pty Limited
Optus Logo
Type of Company Subsidiary of SingTel
Founded Australia (1991)
Headquarters Sydney, Australia (headquarters)
Key people Paul O'Sullivan, Chief Executive
Industry Telecommunications
Products Fixed Telephony
Mobile Telephony
Internet Access
Cable Television
Leased Lines
Data Transmission
Revenue $7.192 billion AUD (2006, [1])
Employees 10,124 (2006, [2])
Website www.optus.com.au

SingTel Optus Pty Limited is the second largest telecommunications company in Australia, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of SingTel (ASX: SGT). The company primarily trades under the Optus brand, while maintaining several wholly owned subsidiary brands, such as Virgin Mobile Australia in the mobile telephony market and Uecomm in the network services market.

To provide services, Optus owns and operates its own network infrastructure, as well as using the services of other network service providers, most notably Telstra Wholesale. It provides services both directly to end users and also acts as a wholesaler to other service providers.

The company was formerly known as Cable & Wireless Optus Pty Limited and prior to that, as Optus Communications Pty Limited.

Contents

[edit] Overview

Key Optus products and services include:

[edit] Infrastructure

Optus' fully owned network infrastructure consists of:

[3] [4]

Part-owned network infrastructure includes:

[edit] Subsidiaries

A number of notable wholly owned SingTel subsidiaries operate in Australia as part of the SingTel Optus group. These are:

Optus also sells mobile services under the brand name Boost Mobile.

Other wholly owned subsidiaries of note no longer have a significant active role as individual entities.

Reef Networks was formed in 1999 to provide an optical fibre link between Brisbane and Cairns. Optus gained exclusive access to this link in 2001, ahead of acquiring the organisation in 2005. [7]

XYZed was established by Optus in 2000 to provide wholesale business-grade DSL services under an individual brand, but today provides a collection of products only as part of the Optus Wholesale & Satellite division. XYZed established a network of DSLAMs inside Telstra telephone exchanges, utilising Unconditioned Local Loop services to reach end users.

[edit] History

Original 1990's logo
Enlarge
Original 1990's logo

In the late 1980s, the Federal Labor government, led by Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, faced a financial dilemma with the nation's Aussat satellite system; used for both military and civilian satellite communications, and delivering television services to remote outback communities.

To alleviate the problem, the government decided to sell Aussat coupled with a telecommunications licence. The licence was sold to Optus Communications - a consortium including:

  • logistics firm Mayne Nickless (24.99%);
  • UK telecommunications company Cable & Wireless (24.5%);
  • US telecommunications company BellSouth (24.5%);
  • insurance and investment company AMP;
  • insurance and investment company National Mutual; and
  • AIDC Limited.

[8] [9]

The new telecommunications company was designed to provide competition to then government owned telecommunications company Telecom Australia; now known as Telstra.

After privatisation, Aussat became Optus and its first offering to the general public was to offer long distance calls at cheaper rates than that of its competitor Telstra. The long distance calling rates on offer were available by consumers dialing 1 before the area code and phone number. Each capital city went through a phone ballot, with customers choosing their default long distance carrier. Customers who made no choice or refused to respond to the mailout campaign automatically remained as a Telstra long distance customer. Customers who remained with Telstra could dial the override code of 1456 before the area code and phone number to manually select Optus as the carrier for that single call. These days, consumers have the choice of preselecting their preferred long distance carrier or dialling the override code before dialing a telephone number.

The group began by building an interstate fibre optic cable and a series of exchanges between Optus' interstate network and Telecom's local network. It also laid fibre optics into major office buildings and industrial areas, and focused on high bandwidth local, (interstate) long distance, and interstate calls for business. In its early years, Optus was only able to offer local and long distance calls to residential customers connected to Telstra's local phone network. Telstra would carry residential to residential calls to Optus' exchanges, and then the calls would be switched to Optus' long distance fibre optic network.

However, this practice meant that Optus was (and still is) the single largest customer of their competitor, Telstra. To really become competitive, Optus would need to lay its own local phone network. To provide a killer application for this, the Australian Federal government decided to sell subscription television licences. Optus, as well as the Seven Network, businessman Kerry Stokes and American cable company Cablevision, formed the Optus Vision consortium. News Corporation, PBL and Telstra created the rival Foxtel consortium.

[edit] The Broadband Rollout

Telstra's copper twisted pair local phone network did not in the early 1990s have the capability to deliver their Foxtel pay television to consumers. As such a need was identified for a broadband network to support this new product.

When Telstra and Optus couldn't agree to terms on a joint broadband cable rollout, they began laying out two independent and parallel cable networks, on top of Telstra's existing copper network, at a combined cost estimated at over A$6bn.

Whilst Telstra focused on creating a broadband network specifically for broadcast, Optus recognised an opportunity to design the network so that it could also be used to provide a telephony product.

The network was initially used to broadcast Cable TV only, but then in 1996 the first phone call was made across the Optus network and the activation of further telephony services followed.

[edit] Recent developments

Optus reached profitability, and merged with its subsidiary to form Cable and Wireless Optus. C&W Optus was later listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Cable & Wireless Optus was later taken over in a friendly take over bid by SingTel and is now known as SingTel Optus Pty Ltd.

In the 2003 & 2004 Financial Year, Optus reported a profit of AUD $440 million. This was an improvement of AUD $412 million from the previous year.

[edit] External links

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