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Singtel Optus Pty Limited (commonly referred to as Optus) is an Australian telecommunications company headquartered in Macquarie Park, New South Wales,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Singaporean telecommunications company
Singtel Singapore Telecommunications Limited, commonly known as Singtel, is a Singaporean telecommunications conglomerate and one of the four major telcos operating in the country. The company is the largest mobile network operator in Singapore with ...
. Optus is the second-largest wireless carrier in Australia, with 10.5 million subscribers as of 2019. The company trades under the Optus brand, while maintaining several wholly owned subsidiaries, such as
Uecomm Uecomm is a telecommunications company with its headquarters in Melbourne, Australia. It is a subsidiary of Optus. United Energy formed its United Energy Telecommunications (UET) division in 1996. UET established fibre networks in metropolitan ...
in the network services market and
Alphawest Alphawest is a SingTel Optus Group company with its headquarters in Sydney, Australia. It has an Australia-wide support organisation which specialises in ICT systems development and provisioning, and the associated managed services. History Alp ...
in the ICT services sector. To provide services, Optus mostly owns and operates its own network infrastructure, It provides services both directly to end users and also acts as a wholesaler to other service providers such as
Exetel Exetel is an Australian ISP which provides ADSL, web hosting, VoIP, and other internet services to customers across Australia. Exetel's headquarters are in offices in Sydney, and its switching centres are distributed in capital city secure data ...
and
Amaysim Amaysim (branded as amaysim) is an Australian provider of mobile phone plans. Amaysim operates as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator on the Optus 4G network, and specialises in offering a range of SIM-only mobile plans. , Amaysim group had just ...
. Through its Optus 'Yes' brand, it provides broadband, and wireless internet services. Other wholesale services include Satellite and 4G Mobile. The company was originally known as Optus Communications Pty Limited. It went through the names Cable & Wireless Optus Pty Limited, Cable & Wireless Optus Limited and SingTel Optus Limited before changing to its present name. Optus is divided into four major business – Mobile; Business; Wholesale; and Consumer & Multimedia.


History


AUSSAT and deregulation

Optus can trace its beginnings back to the formation of the Government-owned AUSSAT Pty Limited in 1981. In 1982, Aussat selected the Hughes 376 for their initial satellites, with the first, AUSSAT A1, launched in August 1985. AUSSAT satellites were used for both military and civilian satellite communications, and delivering television services to remote
outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a n ...
communities. With Aussat operating at a loss and with moves to deregulate
telecommunications in Australia Telecommunications in Australia refers to communication in Australia through electronic means, using devices such as telephone, television, radio or computer, and services such as the telephony and broadband networks. Telecommunications have ...
, the government decided to sell Aussat, coupled with a telecommunications licence. The licence was sold to Optus Communications – a consortium including: * logistics firm
Mayne Nickless Mayne Group was an Australian healthcare and logistics company. History Mayne Nickless was founded in Melbourne in 1886 by John Mayne and Enoch Nickless as a parcel delivery service. Within three months it was operating 10 horse drawn vans, by ...
(24.99%); * UK telecommunications company Cable & Wireless (24.50%); * US telecommunications company BellSouth (24.50%); * AIDC Limited (10.00%); * insurance and investment company AMP (10.00%); and * insurance and investment company
National Mutual AMP is a financial services company in Australia and New Zealand providing superannuation and investment products, financial advice, and banking products (through AMP Banking) including home loans and savings accounts. Its headquarters is in ...
(6.02%). The new telecommunications company was designed to provide competition to then government owned telecommunications company ''Telecom Australia'', now known as Telstra.


Early history

Optus gained the second general carrier licence in January 1991. After privatisation, AUSSAT became Optus and its first offering to the general public was to offer long-distance calls at cheaper rates than that of its competitor Telstra. The long-distance calling rates on offer were initially available by consumers dialing ''1'' before the area code and phone number. Following this, a ballot process was conducted by then regulator
AUSTEL The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is an Australian government statutory authority within the Communications portfolio. ACMA was formed on 1 July 2005 with the merger of the Australian Broadcasting Authority and the Aus ...
, with customers choosing their default long-distance carrier. Customers who made no choice or did not respond to the mailout campaign automatically remained as a Telstra long-distance customer. Customers who remained with Telstra could dial the override code of ''1456'' before the area code and phone number to manually select Optus as the carrier for that single call. Since 1 July 1998, consumers have the choice of preselecting their preferred long-distance carrier or dialling the override code before dialling a telephone number. The group began by building an interstate
fibre optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...
cable and a series of exchanges between Optus' interstate network and Telstra's local network. It also laid fibre optics into major office buildings and industrial areas, and focused on high bandwidth local, (interstate) long distance, and interstate calls for business. In its early years, Optus was only able to offer local and long-distance calls to residential customers through Telstra's local phone network. Telstra would carry residential to residential calls to Optus' exchanges, and then the calls would be switched to Optus' long-distance fibre optic network. Optus was the main sponsor of the
1997 ARL season The 1997 Australian Rugby League season was the 90th season of professional rugby league football in Australia, and the third season run by the Australian Rugby League. While several clubs had left the League to compete in the 1997 Super Leagu ...
.


2022 cyberattack

Around 22 September 2022, Optus systems sustained a significant cyberattack that resulted in a major data breach of both current and former customers' personal information, including customers’ names, dates of birth, phone numbers and email addresses, with a smaller subset of customers having their street addresses, driving licence details and passport numbers leaked. Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin urged customers to exercise "heightened awareness" regarding transactions with their Optus and other accounts. Rosmarin emphasised that passwords were not compromised. The CEO said that the "worst-case scenario" regarding the number of customers whose data had been leaked was 9.8 million customers, but believes the actual number to be far lower. On 24 September 2022, Australian news outlets '' The Age'' and '' The Sydney Morning Herald'' reported that Optus was investigating the authenticity of a ransom demand of US$1 million made on a hacking forum. The demand gave Optus one week to pay the ransom in cryptocurrency else the data will be sold for US $300,000 to whoever else wants it. On 6 October, the
Australian Federal Police The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is the national and principal federal law enforcement agency of the Australian Government with the unique role of investigating crime and protecting the national security of the Commonwealth of Australia. Th ...
announced the arrest of a 19-year-old man who had allegedly threatened 93 Optus customers by saying that he would use their information leaked in the attack to commit financial crimes, unless they paid AUD $2,000. In response to the cyberattack, the Australian federal government announced emergency regulation on 6 October, in the form of a 12 month amendment to the ''Telecommunications Regulations 2021'' to "enable telecommunications companies to temporarily share approved government identifier information with regulated financial services entities." On 11 October, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner launched an investigation, the aim of which is to explore the company's handling of customers' data.


Corporate affairs


Chief Executive Officer

Kelly Bayer Rosmarin commenced as CEO of Optus and Consumer Australia on 1 April 2020. A senior executive, Kelly joined Optus as Deputy CEO on 1 March 2019 following a variety of executive roles including Group Executive, Institutional Banking and Markets at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.


The hybrid fibre-coax rollout

These practices meant that Optus was the largest customer of Telstra. To become competitive Optus would need to lay its own local phone network. To provide a killer application for this, the Australian Federal government sold subscription television licences. Optus, as well as the Seven Network, businessman
Kerry Stokes Kerry Matthew Stokes (born John Patrick Alford on 13 September 1940) is an Australian businessman. He holds business interests in a diverse range of industries including electronic and print media, property, mining, and construction equipment. ...
and American cable company Cablevision, formed the
Optus Vision Optus Television is the cable television division of Australian telecommunications company Optus. History Its immediate predecessor was Optus Vision, a joint venture between Optus and Continental Cablevision, with small shareholdings by media ...
consortium. News Corporation and Telstra created the rival
Foxtel Foxtel is an Australian pay television company—operating in cable television, direct broadcast satellite television, and IPTV streaming services. It was formed in April 2018, superseding an earlier company from 1995. The service was establi ...
consortium. Telstra's local phone network did not have the capability to deliver Foxtel pay television to consumers in the early 1990s, so Telstra identified a need to create a broadband network to support this new product. As Telstra and Optus could not agree on terms for a joint broadband cable roll out, they laid two competing cable networks, in addition to Telstra's existing copper network, at a combined cost estimated of over A$6bn. Whilst Telstra focused on creating a broadband network specifically for broadcast, Optus designed their cable network to provide telephony services in addition to broadcast television. Optus is no longer a customer of Telstra's after deciding to move the funding used to lease Telstra's copper network into constructing their hybrid fibre-coaxial network, the first in Australia.


Takeovers

Cable and Wireless with 24.5% stakeholder bought out Bell South's equal 24.5% shareholding in July 1997. The company returned to profitability in 1998 and changed its name to Cable and Wireless Optus Pty Limited. Government relaxation of foreign ownership restrictions paved the way for the company to be floated - with Cable and Wireless increasing its holding to 52.5%) - and listed on the Australian Stock Exchange on 17 November 1998. During 2001,
Singtel Singapore Telecommunications Limited, commonly known as Singtel, is a Singaporean telecommunications conglomerate and one of the four major telcos operating in the country. The company is the largest mobile network operator in Singapore with ...
launched a takeover bid for Cable and Wireless Optus which was ultimately successful and the company became known as Singtel Optus Pty Limited. In May 2004, Optus announced a $226.8 million bid for UEComm. The takeover was approved in July and completed in August. In July 2005, Optus announced it would acquire Alphawest Ltd. for A$25.9 million. The buyout was completed in November 2005 and Alphawest is now an operating division of Optus Business. On 12 January 2006, Optus acquired the remaining 74.15% of Virgin Mobile Australia for U$22.6 m, giving it 100% ownership.


OptusNet

Optus Communications offered its first business-focused internet products in 1998 under the OptusNet product family, offering in-house developed dial-up and high-speed services. Optus purchased one of Australia's pioneer ISPs, Microplex, in 1998 to provide consumer dial-up internet services. Separate to this, under the Optus Vision brand, a
cable broadband In telecommunications, cable Internet access, shortened to cable Internet, is a form of broadband Internet access which uses the same infrastructure as a cable television. Like digital subscriber line and fiber to the premises services, cable Inte ...
arm began as a joint venture with U.S. cable and content provider
Excite@Home @Home Network was a high-speed cable Internet service provider from 1996 to 2002. It was founded by Milo Medin, cable companies Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), Comcast, and Cox Communications, and William Randolph Hearst III, who was their f ...
and was known as Optus@Home from its introduction in 1999 until it was renamed in 2002. ADSL services were offered from February 2004. ADSL2+ services were provided from December 2005.


OPEL Networks

In June 2007, joint venture subsidiary
OPEL Networks OPEL Networks Pty Limited was a telecommunications provider that was to establish wholesale broadband services in regional areas of Australia in the form of WiMAX and ADSL2+ via a network of DSLAMs. The network was also to include terrestrial a ...
was awarded government funding towards the cost of building a regional broadband network. Optus was to be contracted to build the network on behalf of OPEL. In April 2008, after a change of the Federal Government from the Liberal Party of Australia coalition to the Australian Labor Party, the new government terminated the funding agreement and the project was halted, with its functions to be replaced by the National Broadband Network.


Terria

Optus is part of a consortium – now known as Terria – that in July 2006 announced their intention to make a combined bid to build the proposed National Broadband Network.


Products and services

Optus's Customer Solutions and Services (CS&S) organisation is responsible for providing support to Optus Business customers. CS&S works with Optus' subsidiary
Alphawest Alphawest is a SingTel Optus Group company with its headquarters in Sydney, Australia. It has an Australia-wide support organisation which specialises in ICT systems development and provisioning, and the associated managed services. History Alp ...
to support information technology services across Optus' large business, corporate and government client base. Retail services are sold to customers via phone, internet or through retail outlets, especially franchise
chains A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A c ...
such as Optus World, Network Communications, Strathfield, Telechoice, and Allphones. Key Optus products and services include:


Voice

* Residential and Commercial
POTS Pot may refer to: Containers * Flowerpot, a container in which plants are cultivated * Pottery, ceramic ware made by potters * A type of cookware Places * Ken Jones Aerodrome, IATA airport code POT * Palestinian Occupied Territories, the We ...
for local and long-distance telephony * Commercial VoIP and VoDSL *
Intelligent Network The Intelligent Network (IN) is the standard network architecture specified in the ITU-T Q.1200 series recommendations. It is intended for fixed as well as Global System for Mobile Communications, mobile telecommunication, telecom networks. It al ...
applications, such as free call,
1300 Year 1300 ( MCCC) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, the 1300th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 300th year of the 2nd millennium, the 100th ...
and Interactive voice response services


Wireless

* GSM/
GPRS General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data standard on the 2G and 3G cellular communication network's global system for mobile communications (GSM). GPRS was established by European Telecommunications Standards Insti ...
utilising 900 MHz/1800 MHz covering 98.5% of the population * 3G/
HSPA HSPA may refer to: * High Speed Packet Access, a mobile broadband technology * Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Education * High School Proficiency Assessment * Humphrey School of Public Affairs The Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Aff ...
provided by 2100 MHz for large regional centres and metropolitan and 900 MHz for regional as well as metropolitan coverage. The dual frequencies covers 98.5% (98.8% with the use of an external antenna) of the population * 4G/
LTE LTE may refer to: Science and technology * LTE (telecommunication) (Long-Term Evolution), a telephone and mobile broadband standard ** LTE Advanced, an enhancement *** LTE Advanced Pro * Compaq LTE, a line of laptop computers produced by Compaq * ...
provided by 700 / 1800 / 2100 / 2300 / 2600 MHz Covering 95.9% of the Australian population (As of July 2017). * 5G provided by 2300MHz and 3500MHz *
Satellite Telephony A satellite telephone, satellite phone or satphone is a type of mobile phone that connects to other phones or the telephone network by radio through orbiting satellites instead of terrestrial cell sites, as cellphones do. The advantage of a sa ...
covering all of Australia.


Internet access

* NBN Internet (via Cable,
FTTB Fiber to the ''x'' (FTTX; also spelled "fibre") or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber optic ...
,
FTTC Fiber to the ''x'' (FTTX; also spelled "fibre") or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber optic ...
,
FTTN Fiber to the ''x'' (FTTX; also spelled "fibre") or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber optic ...
,
FTTP Fiber to the ''x'' (FTTX; also spelled "fibre") or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber optic ...
, Fixed wireless and Satellite) * Residential Dial-Up Internet in all states * Residential
Broadband Internet In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...
(via cable and DSL) in all states (except the Northern Territory). * Commercial and wholesale internet access * Secure Gateway services for Federal Government departments * NBN WIRELESS - not continued for new connects


Television

* Optus Television service provided in
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, Melbourne & Brisbane, including
Foxtel Digital Foxtel is an Australian pay television company—operating in cable television, direct broadcast satellite television, and IPTV streaming services. It was formed in April 2018, superseding an earlier company from 1995. The service was establi ...


Subsidiaries

A number of notable wholly owned subsidiaries operate as part of the Singtel Optus group. These are: * Information Technology & Network Services **
Alphawest Alphawest is a SingTel Optus Group company with its headquarters in Sydney, Australia. It has an Australia-wide support organisation which specialises in ICT systems development and provisioning, and the associated managed services. History Alp ...
**
Uecomm Uecomm is a telecommunications company with its headquarters in Melbourne, Australia. It is a subsidiary of Optus. United Energy formed its United Energy Telecommunications (UET) division in 1996. UET established fibre networks in metropolitan ...
* Mobile Telephony ** SIMplus ** Virgin Mobile Australia Until 20 January 2013, Optus sold mobile services under the brand name
Boost Mobile Boost Mobile may refer to: * Boost Mobile (Australia), an Australian mobile virtual network operator * Boost Mobile (United States), an American mobile virtual network operator owned by Dish Wireless * Spark New Zealand Spark New Zealand Limit ...
. Optus also has a 50% stake in the now defunct
OPEL Networks OPEL Networks Pty Limited was a telecommunications provider that was to establish wholesale broadband services in regional areas of Australia in the form of WiMAX and ADSL2+ via a network of DSLAMs. The network was also to include terrestrial a ...
. Other wholly owned subsidiaries of note no longer have a significant active role as individual entities. These are as follows:
Reef Networks A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes— deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock ou ...
was formed in 1999 to provide an
optical fibre An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...
link between Brisbane and
Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...
in Queensland. Optus gained exclusive access to this link in 2001, ahead of acquiring the organisation in 2005. XYZed was established by Optus in 2000 to provide wholesale business-grade DSL services under an individual brand, but today provides a collection of products only as part of the Optus Wholesale & Satellite division. XYZed established a network of DSLAMs inside Telstra telephone exchanges, utilising Unconditioned Local Loop services to reach end users.


Infrastructure

Optus' fully owned network infrastructure consists of the following:


Network backbone

* ExtraTerrestrial
Fibre Optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...
Network ** Cairns to Brisbane ** Brisbane to Sydney ( fully diverse over two physically separate paths) ** Sydney to Melbourne ( fully diverse over two physically separate paths, one via
Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
, one via the coast) ** Melbourne to Adelaide ** Adelaide to Perth * SDH Digital Microwave **
Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
to Launceston * Satellite ** Fleet of
geostationary A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular geosynchronous orbit in altitude ...
satellites (See Optus fleet of satellites) ** International Earth Stations in Sydney and Perth ** National Earth Stations in Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart and
Darwin Darwin may refer to: Common meanings * Charles Darwin (1809–1882), English naturalist and writer, best known as the originator of the theory of biological evolution by natural selection * Darwin, Northern Territory, a territorial capital city i ...
* Regional exchanges in Sydney (Rosebery), Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide and Perth. * Telehousing Data Centres in Melbourne and Sydney


Customer access network

* Hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) network in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, providing consumer fixed telephony,
cable internet In telecommunications, cable Internet access, shortened to cable Internet, is a form of broadband Internet access which uses the same infrastructure as a cable television. Like digital subscriber line and fiber to the premises services, cable In ...
and cable television services. * CBD optical fibre rings in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra and Wollongong, providing direct access for corporate and government services. * DSLAMs in certain Telstra local telephone exchanges in all states. Originally only providing business-grade DSL services, newer installations also provide consumer DSL and
POTS Pot may refer to: Containers * Flowerpot, a container in which plants are cultivated * Pottery, ceramic ware made by potters * A type of cookware Places * Ken Jones Aerodrome, IATA airport code POT * Palestinian Occupied Territories, the We ...
telephony. OptusNet is one of only five ISPs in Australia to provide Cable internet (the other four are BigPond, Neighbourhood Cable, TransACT and e-wire). In August 2010, OptusNet released an upgrade of its HFC network to the DOCSIS 3.0 standard, which enabled customers to access a maximum theoretical downstream bandwidth of 100 Megabits. OptusNet is also one of the few ISPs in Australia to currently provide ADSL2+ via its own DSLAMs, which it also resells to other ISPs.


Mobile network

Mobile network equipment is from Nortel, Nokia and Huawei and antennas are sourced from Andrews, RFS, Argus and Kathrein. The Optus network operates on the following bandwidth frequencies across Australia: * 3G UMTS 900/2100 MHz * 4G
LTE LTE may refer to: Science and technology * LTE (telecommunication) (Long-Term Evolution), a telephone and mobile broadband standard ** LTE Advanced, an enhancement *** LTE Advanced Pro * Compaq LTE, a line of laptop computers produced by Compaq * ...
700 / 1800 / 2100 / 2300 / 2600 MHz network which has been in progressive rollout since 2012.
VoLTE Voice over LTE (VoLTE) is an LTE high-speed wireless communication standard for mobile phones and data terminals, including Internet of things (IoT) devices and wearables. VoLTE has up to three times more voice and data capacity than older 3G U ...
is currently being rolled out across Australia. For now,
VoLTE Voice over LTE (VoLTE) is an LTE high-speed wireless communication standard for mobile phones and data terminals, including Internet of things (IoT) devices and wearables. VoLTE has up to three times more voice and data capacity than older 3G U ...
is only available in CBD and metro areas in
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and Canberra on selected devices purchased on postpaid contracts. Until VoLTE has been fully rolled out, voice calling is still reliant on the 3G network (and formerly the 2G network until it was terminated). * 5G 3500 MHz rollout started in October 2019 The 2G GSM 900/1800 MHz network was terminated on 3 April 2017 in Western Australia and Northern Territory. 2G GSM was completely terminated on 1 August 2017 when 2G was disconnected in Victoria, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia. To remain connected, a device that is capable of running 3G at 900 MHz is now required after 2G was completely disconnected across Australia.


Partly owned infrastructure

Part-owned network infrastructure includes: * 3G mobile network, a joint venture with Vodafone Australia * Southern Cross Cable, a fully diverse
submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
optical fibre An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...
link across the Pacific Ocean between Sydney, New South Wales and California in the United States. The Singtel group owns a 40% interest in Southern Cross Cables Limited. This interest was originally owned by Singtel Optus Pty Limited, before ownership was transferred to parent company Singtel during the March 2006 - June 2006 quarter.


Advertising and sponsorship

In 2016, Optus signed a 10-year partnership agreement with the Australian Olympic Committee to be the official partner of the Australian Olympic Team and the Australian Paralympic Team until 2026. In 2017, Optus won naming rights to Perth Stadium where it would be known as Optus Stadium. Optus and the
Government of Western Australia The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of Western Australia. It is also commonly referred to as the WA Government o ...
agreed to a 10-year naming right worth approximately A$50 million. Optus also has a long-term partnership with the Adelaide Crows in the
AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...
. Optus has been a partner of the Collingwood Magpies in the AFL Women's since 2018. Optus is the current major sponsor for the No. 25 Walkinshaw Andretti United
Holden ZB Commodore The Opel Insignia is a large family car (D-segment in Europe) developed and produced by the German car manufacturer Opel since 2008. Taking its name from a 2003 concept car, the model line serves as the flagship Opel car line, slotted above th ...
driven by
Chaz Mostert Chaz Mostert (born 10 April 1992) is an Australian professional racing driver competing in the Repco Supercars Championship. He currently drives the No. 25 Holden ZB Commodore for Walkinshaw Andretti United. Mostert was the winner of the 2021 ...


Outsourcing

Since 2005, Optus has outsourced some customer service functions to Concentrix and 247.ai, with the outsourcer providing 800 staff operating
offshore Offshore may refer to: Science and technology * Offshore (hydrocarbons) * Offshore construction, construction out at sea * Offshore drilling, discovery and development of oil and gas resources which lie underwater through drilling a well * Off ...
in India, supplementing Optus' 3,000-plus onshore call centre staff. Some functions have also been supplemented in the Philippines. Optus also uses 24/7 Inc. for telephone & chat based offshore support. In October 2006, Optus announced that it would outsource 100 contracting jobs to another
Singtel Singapore Telecommunications Limited, commonly known as Singtel, is a Singaporean telecommunications conglomerate and one of the four major telcos operating in the country. The company is the largest mobile network operator in Singapore with ...
subsidiary, IT company
NCS NCS may refer to: Biology and chemistry * N-Chlorosuccinimide, an organic chemical * Neotenic complex syndrome * Nerve conduction study, a medical diagnostic test * Neuronal calcium sensor, a family of proteins * Thiocyanate, an organic compoun ...
, in Singapore.


Achievement and Rewards


See also

* 4G Australia * Internet in Australia * National Broadband Network * Telecommunications in Australia


References


External links

*
Photos: Optus's new home
(ZDNet Australia) {{Authority control Optus, Australian companies established in 1981 Companies based in Sydney Telecommunications companies established in 1981 Australian brands Internet service providers of Australia Mobile phone companies of Australia Satellite operators Temasek Holdings Telecommunications companies of Australia Australian subsidiaries of foreign companies 1998 initial public offerings 2001 mergers and acquisitions Former Commonwealth Government-owned companies of Australia