The Telstra UK Ltd arm of Australian telecommunications operator Telstra Corp, which launched its first services in the UK in March (CI No 2,635), will expand its existing services and introduce new ones by the end of the year. The company, which currently offers international speech and facsimile services to the Asia-Pacific region for UK companies based in London and the M25 corridor, will extend these services to businesses in Oxford, Cambridge and the M4 corridor by this month, with national roll-out planned for the end of October. In addition, it will be introducing a national direct dial service for UK customers, also available this month, and plans to conduct its first Virtual Private Network customer trials in the next quarter. Following this, a commercial service is scheduled for the end of the year, together with a toll-free 0800 number business service, and an international charge card service. As to the company’s commercial success, Telstra UK’s managing director Boyd Faulks said it has closed deals with 20 customers in the last four months, representing annual revenue to the company of รบ750,000. This puts it well ahead of its initial objective, which was to sign 30 key users by the end of 1995, said Faulks. By next July, the company expects to have more than 250 customers in total for all its services.
