NTT lobbies Telstra for cloud partnership, as competition from SingTel intensifies

Japanese incumbent telco Nippon Telegraph and Telephone is reportedly lobbying Telstra for a partnership, amidst growing competition from Optus’ parent SingTel.

In an article in the Australian Financial Review, NTT urges the Australian telco to use its global network of data centres, which would be connected to Telstra’s own networks.

The news comes as Telstra repositions itself from being a traditional telecommunications company towards being a network applications and services (NAS) provider with a focus on south-east Asia.

In March, Cisco and Telstra announced a partnership to build the world’s largest network of cloud computing services, with the company also signing a deal to be the sole provider of NAS to Telkom Indonesia.

The shift, conducted in partnership with Indian outsourcing firm Infosys, acquire cloud-based services businesses O2 and NSC, and divest directory business Sensis and its stake in Hong Kong mobile carrier CSL.

Optus’ parent company SingTel responded to the moves by signing a partnership with Microsoft’s Azure ExpressRoute  hybrid cloud-hosting service and expanding its Hong Kong data centre footprint.