Optus plans all IP future by 2010

Optus is gearing up to shift its business customers to an all IP-based network in the coming years and is kicking off the transition with a suite of converged products, under the brand name Evolve.

According to John Boothroyd, GM of products and services at Optus, the telco is hoping to realise long-term savings from the network changeover and plans to phase out legacy networks by 2010.

The company is now talking to its customers about switching to IP, with the new products scheduled to go live in October.

The Evolve suite will include managed router services, secure remote access, IP VPN, reporting facilities and converged fixed-mobile services, among others.

Optus also plans to roll out additional Evolve products in the near future, with VoIP likely to be next addition to the suite, coming sometime in 2008.

Boothroyd said that Optus customers are already warming to IP. "Most people we talk to consider it to be safe and secure -- you wouldn't have got that two years ago," he told ZDNet Australia. According to Optus research, 80 percent of Australian businesses will have switched to IP by 2010.

Optus's archrival Telstra also has a next-generation network up and running. Telstra's Next IP network, launched in April came at a cost of AU$1.5bn to the telco and was designed to cut down the mesh of legacy networks then in use.