OPTUS TAKES THE LEAD WITH AUSTRALIAN SATELLITE DEALS

Optus announced today it had significantly increased its portfolio of corporate and government clients for satellite services over the past 12-months.

Warren Hardy, Managing Director of Optus Wholesale & Satellite, said the deals Optus had executed in 2004 had strengthened its position as Australia's leading satellite provider.

"Optus has an extensive background of supplying satellite services and this year we have secured several new corporate and government clients," Mr Hardy said.

New satellite wins for Optus have included: a 15-year, multi-million dollar deal with Sky TV; a three-year deal with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade; a 10-year, multi-million dollar deal with the ABC; a four- year deal with PanAmSat; a two-year deal with Orica; and a three-year deal with Theiss.

"The number of organisations using Optus satellite services is significant - they account for $107 million of Optus' revenue for the first half of the current financial year¹, which we believe positions Optus as the leading satellite provider in Australia.

"We have also increased the number of small business and consumer satellite customers as a result of our new Optus Broadband Satellite service, available under the Federal Government's Higher Bandwidth Incentive Scheme (HiBIS)," he said.

"We are determined to reduce the city-country divide in telecommunications - and satellite is playing a big part in that.

"Services often difficult to deliver to the remote parts of Australia, such as voice, data and broadcast, are readily available via Optus satellites. That is why Optus is Australia's specialist satellite operator, delivering subscription-TV and rural communications services which no competitor can match."

Mr Hardy confirmed that the creation of Optus' D-series satellites was on track. He said the D1 satellite would be ready to launch at the end of 2005 and the D2 satellite was on track for a 2006 launch.

Media contact:
Luisa Ford
Optus Corporate Affairs
Tel: (02) 9342 5045

¹ Optus half-year results were at 30 September 2004.