South Australian businesses will have access to some of the lowest telecommunications rates in Australia after the signing of a $79m deal between the state government and AAP Telecommunications Pty Ltd, state Premier Dean Brown said. He said AAP had won the Telecommunications Service Manager contract against bids from companies including Telstra Corp Ltd, Optus Communications Pty Ltd, Electronic Data Systems Corp and Pacific Start Pty Ltd. The contract consolidates the government’s own telecommunications services, providing direct savings of up to $2.3m over two years, and the company is to locate a customer service center in Adelaide, creating up to 40 jobs. The South Australian government says that it will also contract out provision of new two-way mobile radio services for all government agencies, especially the emergency services.
