TransACT
 | It has been suggested that Grapevine (internet service provider) be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since September 2008. |
| File:Transact.jpg | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Subscription Television Telecommunications |
| Founded | 2001 |
| Headquarters | Canberra, Australia |
Key people | Wayne Bouffler (CTO) Gordon Dunsford (GM) Ivan Slavich CEO John Mackay, Chairman |
| Products | TransTV Digital TransWEB TransMOBILE TransTALK TransSELECT |
| Website | www.transact.com.au |
TransACT Capital Communications is an Australian telecommunications company based in Canberra which provides broadband internet access, fixed telephony, cable television services, and, more recently, mobile phone services using the Vodafone Network, in Canberra and a subset of these services in Queanbeyan and throughout South-east New South Wales. The company is part-owned by ActewAGL (the main energy and water utility company in the Australian Capital Territory) and since February 2004 TransACT has contracted many of their administrative and marketing functions to ActewAGL.
The development of TransACT's vision and business plan commenced in 1996, led by a small team comprising Robin Eckermann (Chief Architect), Joe Ceccato, Robert Clarke and Jane Taylor, working under the guidance of ACTEW Executive Neville Smith. One of the distinguishing features of the business model was the adoption of an open network philosophy - many years before this approach attracted widespread interest around the world.
The company has built a fibre-optic network to parts of Canberra and Queanbeyan where it owns above-ground electricity distribution network and provides services to customers in a variety of ways.
The first broadband platform rolled out known as Phase 1 network was based on FTTC (fibre to the curb) design with nodes being placed within 300 metres of premises. VDSL technology was used as the access network to get a customers connected to TransACT's high speed broadband and digital TV services. Co-incidentally , TransACT also became the first telco in the country to implement this high speed broadband technology and remains the only one to support it. The Phase 1 VDSL network is available to over 25,000 homes in the region and is still an actively sold product .
The newer Phase 2 rollout involves TransACT placing its own DSLAM equipment within Telstra exchanges and utilising their own fibre-optic backhaul to their main data centre in Dickson, ACT. TransACT completed their ADSL 2/2+ rollout on 1 March 2007. The Phase 2 network is available to anyone outside of Phase 1 with a Telstra phone line in Canberra and Queanbeyan, as long as they are within sufficient distance of their telephone exchange - as with any ADSL service.
TransACT operates an open network with eight companies providing ISP services. These include a mix of large national ISPs and smaller local operations. One of the ISPs (Grapevine) is jointly owned by TransACT and ActewAGL.
TransACT also offers a range of wholesale services to business and ISP customers, including colocation, IP transit , data centre services, and point-to-point or point-to-multipoint data connections including VLL and VPLS services of up to 1 Gbit/s for businesses and ISPs anywhere on their network.
The telco is also the first to build a dedicated FTTH or FTTP gateway offering broadband services at up to 100Mbps download and 20Mbps upload speeds for residential and business customers . The gateway build in the suburb of Forde in the Gunguhlin township is linked to TransACT's core MPLS network . With such infrastructure in place , TransACT is able to offer triple-play services to customers via a single fibre without the need for any copper in the path thus eliminating the bottleneck associated with copper .
As of end of 2009 , 5 new greenfield suburbs namely Forde, Franklin , Crace ,Casey and Bonner were all wired-up for this next generation technology with many new supurbs expected to come onboard in the rapidly expanding ACT region .Including the current ongoing projects , TransACT is able to provide FTTP services to almost 11,000 residents..
In 2007 it was announced that TransACT would take control of Victorian cable TV and telecommunications company Neighbourhood Cable from 1 January 2008.[1]