Indigenous IT gets a slice of NSW comms contract

An indigenous Australian IT company has won part of a contract to supply the New South Wales government's telecoms.

Under the deal, Message Stick Communications -- alongside Powertel and Soul -- will act as mobile and landline services suppliers to the NSW government. The company is majority owned and staffed by indigenous Australians.

The threesome will provide services including PABX systems, conference phone services, phone handsets, managed phone services and some data service. Message Stick will supply mobile voice, data telephony and teleconferencing.

NSW Minister for Commerce Eric Roozendaal said in a statement that Message Stick "has demonstrated its ability to offer high quality services at competitive prices in a very tough and technical marketplace".

The contracts were awarded under the Government Telecommunications Agreements (GTA), which the NSW administration say will cut AU$50 million from its annual telecoms bills, typically reaching AU$260 million. Each of the three suppliers will be able to win up to AU$2 million of government business.

In June of this year, the NSW government signed similar deals with AAPT, Macquarie Telecom, Optus and Telstra for fixed line and mobile services for government agencies.

The GTAs will initially last three years with the option to renew for two periods of 12 months. The agreements will give all government agencies, including schools, police forces and hospitals, the ability to access the same prices for their telecommunications services regardless of their size.