Telstra inks five-year deal with microsoft

Marion RaeAAP Telstra and Microsoft have signed a five-year agreement they say will help accelerate Australia's digital transformation. The deal is also one of the largest partnerships

Microsoft has established with a telecommunications provider globally. "Our strategic partnership with Microsoft is on a scale not seen before in Australia," Telstra CEO Andrew

Penn said in a statement on Tuesday. As pressure grows on existing networks from remote working, high-definition streaming, online education and gaming, more bandwidth is coming. Telstra

will become Microsoft's largest supplier of its network capacity requirements on terrestrial fibre in Australia, while Microsoft will become an anchor tenant on Telstra's new

ultra-fast intercity fibre network. Microsoft technology will be used by Telstra to pitch new solutions for the manufacturing, retail, agriculture, utilities and finance sectors. Telstra and

Microsoft have also pledged to support hybrid ways of working and to reduce the environmental footprint as the Australian economy goes digital. The deal accelerates Telstra's migration

of its internal information technology workloads to the public cloud, with Microsoft Azure as a preferred partner of the telecom giant's 'multi-cloud' approach. Microsoft

will also explore boosting its capacity on Telstra's Asia-Pacific subsea cable network. Through these investments, Microsoft says it will be able to achieve unparalleled connectivity

across key telecommunications routes in Australia and across the Asia-Pacific region. Microsoft and Telstra will work together over the coming months to finalise the expanded partnership.

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