Telstra in two New Ventures
Telstra, the Australian global network provider, moved on two fronts this month to broaden its array of goods and services by finalizing a joint venture with a Hong Kong group, and by introducing online security systems at home.The joint venture with PCCW includes three major divisions:
· An Internet protocol company that puts together the firms' assets as providers of voice, data and Internet connectivity services in the Asia Pacific region. This company will be known as Reach and will operate independently from the parent companies.
· RCW, a wireless company that will operate across the region, starting with Hong Kong's leading mobile business CSL.
· The Internet Data Center Company, which uses the partners' expertise to establish an Asia-Pacific data center business.
The joint venture has been almost two years in the making. U.S. servers will no longer be necessary in order to make contact.
Reach will have substantial assets -- enough to make it a regional Internet powerhouse. They include interests in more than 50 submarine cable systems, four satellite earth stations and extensive integrated voice, data and IP services.
At home, Telstra agreed to host SecureNet's Australian Trust Center within the Telstra network.
Geoffrey Ross, SecureNet's managing director, said the new facilities "will offer core functions of customer identification, permission management and transaction authentication along with a range of support services."
