Australian telecommunications reseller and franchisor, Telcoinabox has resigned a deal with Telstra Wholesale to resell its fixed wire and 2G mobile phone network to its service providers’ small to medium enterprises (SME) customer base. According to Telcoinabox’s general manager Paul Line, the deal is worth $60 million.

The three year contract is an extension of an existing contract between Telstra Wholesale and Telcoinabox, which was signed in late 2006 and included the integration of Telstra’s billing system - LinxOnline Interactive Gateway - into Telcoinabox’s billing system - Utililbil.

Telcoinabox’s general manger, Paul Line said the reseller has around 100 service providers nationwide that service predominantly the SME market in the $500 - $2000 per month spend category.

“Despite a lot of talk about 3G subscriber numbers, the majority of end-users still use a 2G mobile network. Last year Telcoinabox in collaboration with SETEL and The Australian Telecommunications Users Group released a survey of 5000 SMEs, which found that mobile phone and fixed wire is their preferred form of business communication after email and that 66 percent are still on 2G mobile phone plans,” he said.

According to Line, Telstra had succeeded in nurturing the business relationship with Telcoinabox for the last four years.

“We started off reselling Telstra’s fixed wire services, because it is the incumbent provider of PSTN networks,” said Line.

According to Line, Telcoinabox currently resells Telstra’s fixed wire services and 2G mobile network. It also has reselling agreements with RSLCom Unitel and AAPT PowerTel.

“As part of our business model we are out there looking for opportunities with products like ADSL 2+ and 3G mobile, however are not able to go into detail about any potential relationships at this moment,” he said.

Telstra Wholesale Group managing director, Kate McKenzie, said she was pleased that Telcoinabox had renewed its contract.

“The reliability and coverage of our network, the quality of our systems, the skills of our people, the end-to-end service we provide our customers are the reasons our customers – like Telcoinabox – choose Telstra as their wholesale provider,” McKenzie said. “It’s our suite of products and services that gives our customers confidence that they can deliver to their end users.”