TCI to deploy Austar's wireless broadband network

Last month, Austar United Communications laid out plans to expand its regional pay TV and dial-up Internet offerings to include wireless broadband. The company hopes to be offering the broadband service to around 750,000 people in regional Australia by the end of 2007.

A spokesperson for Austar told ZDNet Australia  that TCI was brought on to help the company plan and build its wireless network because that was not Austar's core competency.

"There is a process that needs to be followed when you plan -- where your sites are going to be, local relationships you need to look at, and also things like power availability. That is their core business, not ours. TCI's clients are all of the major telcos here in Australia and that is a recognition of their core competency," the spokesperson said.

TCI's chief executive officer Rod Stanton said that telcos such as Austar want to focus on providing services to their customers rather than actually building their own infrastructure.

"Our contract will allow them to focus on the consumer -- rather than the construction, as we take the headaches out of building wireless networks... Austar also underlines our strong alignment with network operators and equipment suppliers who outsource their non-core business," said Stanton in a statement.