Optus inks AU$40m contract extension with security firm Suretek

Optus Business has signed a three-year, AU$40 million contract extension with specialist security company Suretek for the delivery of its Securecall 1345 services via the Optus network.

Optus Business managing director John Paitaridis said Optus will provide inbound voice and fixed and wireless data services to Suretek as they offer wireless alarm communications, remote video-monitoring, and redundancy solutions.

Optus Business first signed with Suretek in 2013 in a AU$60 million contract that had the telco provide fixed and mobile telecommunications services to the security and surveillance vendor.

Optus confirmed with ZDNet last month that it is in the preliminary stages of developing and lab-testing an in-call digital assistant for customers.

"We are working with developers to build our capabilities. The technology is being developed and tested within a laboratory setting," a spokesperson said in November. "As development is in its early stages, the capabilities of the technology are not yet clear."

With the move to digitise all industries, Optus last month announced that it is opening a cybersecurity centre in Sydney to help secure customer data stored online by its government and enterprise customers.

In September, Optus also added cybersecurity prevention, detection, and monitoring capabilities to its government and enterprise managed security services portfolio.

For the second quarter of FY16, Optus reported a 10 percent year-on-year decline in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) down to AU$633 million and revenue down almost 9 percent to AU$2.1 billion. This was a result of its Sports launch and the regulator's decision in August last year to reduce the rate that mobile network operators can charge each other and fixed-line network operators for calls and SMS.