AUSTRALIA: Inter-state network manager Australian Rail Track Corp has awarded Telstra a ‘multi-million dollar’, 10-year contract to provide telecoms services through the National Train Communications System.
NTCS was developed as a cost-effective and interoperable voice and data communications network for the 8 500 km inter-state and Hunter Valley networks, using Telstra NextG as the primary media and Iridium satellite communications as the secondary. ARTC switched off its analogue network in December 2014.
‘The Telstra-based NTCS will provide a platform for many of the new and exciting innovations being developed by ARTC’, said ARTC CEO John Fullerton when the contract signing was announced on August 25. ‘Applications such as safe travelling distance technology, real-time locomotive tracking, sophisticated track and wayside monitoring technology, situational awareness systems and the next generation of train management all become possible.’
‘We have co-created a mobile and cloud-based solution that will help move the national rail freight sector forward,’ said Telstra’s Chief Customer Officer, Global Enterprise & Services, Martijn Blanken. ‘We have also transitioned ARTC into a private cloud environment, built on VCE Vblock, which will significantly reduce the resources it needs to host the applications the NTCS runs on.’
