Express Data signs Telstra for SME data push

Express Data has signed an exclusive agreement to distribute Telstra’s forthcoming business broadband packages to around 2000 local resellers as the big telco attempts to lure SME data customers into the fold.

Speaking to CRN, Jules Boyd, Telstra’s director of channel development, said the company needed to grow its distribution channel for “data and IP Solutions.”

Express Data – with its pedigree in data networking – was a strong partner for Telstra to reach the data market, he said.

Telstra’s business broadband plans distributed by Express Data would be launched in November, he said.

He added that there were no plans to launch the products through other distributors.

While Boyd declined to provide details about the services being offered, it is believed that the packages would include hosting and domain name registration, virus scanning and automated backup services on top of the broadband connection.

While Telstra’s existing voice channels have access to data products, the company “didn’t have enough coverage in data in the SME space”, Boyd said.

Mal Shaw, Australian sales general manager at Express Data (pictured), said 2000 IT resellers on the distributor’s books were potentially suitable to provide these services to SMEs.

He said it was beneficial to be able to offer carriage services to SME resellers, adding that the agreement with Telstra complemented long-standing relationships the distributor had in place with Microsoft and Cisco Systems.

Telstra had also negotiated to bundle NEXT G network cards with Lenovo and HP’s laptop computers, said Deena Shiff, head of Telstra Business.

The announcement follows the launch of Telstra’s high-speed NEXT G Network, claimed to be five times faster than any other 3GSM network in Australia, claimed to cover 98 percent of the population.

The network was switched on in Sydney this morning by Telstra boss Sol Trujillo and Ericsson president and CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg.