Defence maintains strong Telstra relationship

The federal Department of Defence has placed two voice technical services purchase orders worth a combined AU$12.6 million with Telstra's big business division in the last month.

The six-month orders from October were part of Defence's voice technical services contract with Telstra Business Systems, a spokesperson for the department said in an e-mail to ZDNet Australia late yesterday.

The orders involve voice technical services maintenance. The spokesperson did not disclose the total value of the contract, saying the deal was confidential.

Telstra is an important supplier to the Department of Defence, according to research conducted by ZDNet Australia through the federal government's contracts reporting system.

Like most government departments, Defence is legally required to publish through that system contracts, standing offers and purchase orders it signs above the value of AU$10,000.

In the last 12 months, Defence has disclosed a total of AU$157 million of contracts with Telstra through the system.

The services procured cover an extensive spread of the enterprise-grade services that Telstra provides to large organisations, for example data and voice carriage services, ICT support, computer software and telecommunications hardware.

Telstra's main rival in Australia, Optus, also picked up a substantial amount of work from Defence in that period, with the department disclosing almost AU$97 million worth of contracts.