As Telstra (ASX: TLS.AX) helps its customers migrate to Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN), the incumbent service provider plans to invest $657 million to upgrade its network to help its wholesale carrier customers offer new small to medium business (SMB) services.
Over the course of the next five years, Telstra plans to upgrade 1,600 of its COs to enable other providers to deliver voice, data, EFTPOS (the debit card based system used for processing transactions through terminals at points of sale) and cloud computing over one broadband connection.
Expected to be completed by the end of this year, these upgrades will serve as the foundation of its "Digital Business" vision.
Initially targeted at businesses with up to 10 employees, Digital Business aims to deliver service packages that start at $120 a month to about 90 percent of Australia's SMBs by September. Later, Telstra will extend the offering to businesses with up to 25 employees.
The new network upgrade comes on the heels of its long delayed sale of its copper network by the end of this month to the NBN Co.
For more:
- see the release
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