CSIRO searches for new telco service provider

The CSIRO is on the hunt for new telecommunications services, putting its mobile, fixed voice and data services up for tender.

In tender documents, the CSIRO said that the new provider, under a minimum three year contract, would also be responsible for integration of telecommunication services with the CSIRO’s finance and business processes, Cisco and Juniper technology, Blackberry technology and Cisco IP Telephony technology.

It would also be responsible for providing the agency with a roadmap to supply new telecommunication technology in the future and improving the resiliency and redundancy of the organisation’s data, voice and mobile services.

The CSIRO has about 77 sites, 95 per cent of which are connected using high speed fibre links. Some owned by the CSIRO, others are leased from AARNet and providers such as Amcom and Uecomm. The remaining sites use various last mile technologies, ranging from ISDN to Telstra GWIP. Most intra-state bandwidth is provided by AARNet.

Telstra provides PSTN and ISDN services for offsite voice calls. Offsite video calls use predominately IP — but some units have ISDN capability to connect to external legacy systems, according to tender documents.

The CSIRO has about 3,167 mobile phones and 117 data-only devices provided by Telstra. Of the 3,167 mobile devices, 900-odd devices also have a Blackberry Plan attached to the service.

“CSIRO is a high user of mobile voice and data services — as well as the RIM Blackberry — due to the large number of staff travelling nationally and internationally,” the documents read. “Only the Blackberry is currently supported as it has numerous security features which make it a DSD acceptable device for mobile messaging.

“Additionally the Telstra Next G network has created a huge growth in mobile wireless data card take up — CSIRO staff use these data cards to maintain internet and CSIRO network connectivity via Cisco VPN.”

The CSIRO also said it was upgrading legacy PABX systems at each site with platforms based on the Cisco IP Unified Communications suite of products.

"While SIP Trunking is supported by the new Cisco call managers, it is CSIRO expectation that ISDN and PSTN services will continue to be utilised in the short to medium term," the documents read. "Internal calls between sites are routed over the CSIRO data WAN. Audio Conferencing is provided primarily via the PABX at each site, although there is an ongoing requirement for a managed service."

It also noted that there had been substantial increases in video conferencing and collaboration at the organisation, resulting in a large increase in WAN traffic.

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