Agriculture Dept gives telco outsourcing deal to Optus

Optus has won a $29 million telecommunications outsourcing deal with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF).

The comprehensive deal will tie together a formerly fragmented telecommunications environment, dominated by a six-year, $14.2 million deal with AAPT, andf other deals with Telstra and Optus.

The department approached the market to replace the expiring AAPT contract in February this year. The scope of the new agreement takes in voice and data carriage as well as the management of services, a contact centre and contract labour resourcing.

A spokesman for DAFF said business-as-usual telco spend at the agency was about $6.2 million per year, suggesting that some enhancement work will be covered by the contract.

The Optus deal will not cover the provision gateway services, which were contracted out to Macquarie Telecom at the end of last year.

The department outsources IT to HP under a five-year, $96 million managed services deal.