​TPG signs multimillion-dollar deal with I-Med Network

TPG has inked a multimillion-dollar deal with medical imaging clinic network I-Med Network that will see the telco deliver a dedicated high-speed network to connect all 180 of I-Med's locations across the country.

Under the deal, TPG will leverage its national fibre network, which according to the company will deliver speeds of up to 10Gbps, an increase of between 20 to 50 times in network bandwidth for I-Med.

The increased bandwidth will support I-Med Network's ability to transmit mammograms that are nearly 5GB in size from location to location, many of which are located in regional Australia.

"Recent advances in equipment such as CT and MRI scanners as well as mammography machines allow us to capture images with increased detail. While this has enabled faster diagnosis of health conditions, our current network bandwidth was not always able to meet the demand required by the increased size and quantity of images," I-MED Network CEO Steven Rubic said.

Rubic added that the solution will allow I-MED to take advantage of new imaging technology.

"We will now be able to take full advantage of state-of-the-art 3D rendering applications, which provide our radiologists with incredible detail and new capabilities in image manipulation, ultimately improving diagnostic accuracy," he said.

Rollout of the network has already started, with completion planned for the end of the year.

ZDNet has sought further details about the contract from TPG.

In February, TPG's major submarine cable between Sydney and Guam was under repair for 30 days. During the outage, the PPC-1 submarine cable system, which connects Australia with Papua New Guinea and Guam, lost its payload. Investigating engineers found a fibre fault on the Guam side of the cable.

A spokesperson from TPG explained to ZDNet at the time that it was mostly wholesale customers who were affected by the fibre fault.

However, TPG customers complained over broadband enthusiast website Whirlpool about slow international browsing.

During the interim, TPG rerouted customer connections to the Australian-Japan Cable system and the Southern Cross cable, which connects Australia and New Zealand to the United States.

TPG reported during its half year results for the 2016 financial year an underlying net profit of AU$162.3 million, a 36 percent year-on-year rise from the AU$119.2 million reported for the first half of FY15.

TPG's revenue jumped by 84 percent, from the AU$627.3 million reported for the same period last year up to AU$1.15 billion.

Underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) came in at AU$368.8 million, a growth of 56 percent from the AU$236.2 million reported a year earlier.