Credit: Macquarie Telecom
Macquarie Telecom has been awarded a $1 million contract to supply Regional Australia Bank with broadband services, three months after signing a wholesale deal with NBN Co.
In a three-year deal, Macquarie will supply fibre networks to the co-operative bank’s 32 locations across regional and rural Australia.
The network is expected to increase between four and ten times across branches in NSW regional centres, such as Armidale, Newcastle and Dubbo, plus smaller rural towns like Bingara, Narromine and Merriwa.
The faster network will allow the bank to increase the number of video calls with customers in rural areas while providing better network access for regional businesses, according to Macquarie Telecom.
“Regional Australia Bank is investing in smarter technology and putting a backbone into regional economies throughout Australia,” said Luke Clifton, group executive at Macquarie Telecom.
“The benefits from this deal will be felt beyond the four walls of any of the bank’s branches, as people and regional businesses will be able to avail of better services and networks."
Clifton believes the deal signals an end to price gouging tactics from big telcos, a common issue that is often amplified in regional areas.
"Historically, this is the kind of deal the Bank would have been priced out of because there were no other options in the market," he added. "Now we can help Regional Australia Bank and other businesses fix the disparity between what they and their customers need and what their incumbent telcos are giving."
The deal will also give the Regional Australia Bank access to Macquarie Telecom SD-WAN solution improving visibility over specific applications, increasing resilience through multiple line access, enabling more efficient, unmetered access to cloud services such as Microsoft 365 and end-to-end encryption.
Regional Australia Bank is the first major client to be announced after Macquarie signed the six-year wholesale supply deal, worth more than $100 million, with NBN Co in June.
The deal will see businesses gain access to Macquarie’s ‘business class NBN’, which sees the publicly-listed telco's internet, data and SD-WAN products delivered over NBN Co’s multi-technology-mix.
