SYDNEY-Australia’s Telstra Corp. launched its network transformation strategy, announcing new contracts with Alcatel, Cisco Systems Inc. and L.M. Ericsson. Telstra said its five-year agreement with Alcatel is worth $2.55 billion and will migrate the Australian carrier’s traditional voice and broadband access networks into a single Internet Protocol-based network.
Without releasing terms of the agreements, Telstra said it chose Ericsson to develop its national Third Generation W-CDMA city-to-country high-speed network, and Cisco to upgrade its IP core network.
The carrier said it expects to make more vendor announcements soon.
Telstra also said it plans to trim its work force of 52,000, cutting about 12,000 jobs over the next five years.
The network transformation and job cuts are part of the company’s plan, as laid out by Chief Executive Sol Trujillo, to boost its ability to compete against mobile carriers Vodafone Group plc, Singapore Communications Ltd. and Huchison Whampoa Ltd.
In August, the company announced plans to begin offering W-CDMA services. The carrier, which operates both GSM- and CDMA-based networks, already offers CDMA2000 1x EV-DO service in some Australian markets.
