AAPT buys DSL provider Nextep

AAPT has entered into a wide-ranging partnership with NEC that will see it buy out NEC’s Nextep DSL business for an undisclosed sum.

“We have a strong tendency to do partnerships with ICT companies," AAPT chief executive David Yuille said.

According to Yuille, it was important for NEC to do a deal with a company it could partner with, rather than compete with.

“Many of our telco competitors are moving into providing managed services, ICT services and so on,” he said. “So in that sense we need each other. It’s a bit like yin and yang.”

Under the terms of the deal, which is expected to close at the end of November, the Nextep name will disappear and the business will roll into the overall AAPT organisation.

Yuille said it is unlikely headcount reductions will take place as a result of the sale. “We’re certainly not talking that way.”