Open Telecommunications

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Open Telecommunications Ltd
Type ASX-listed (Defunct)
Founded 1995 by Wayne Passlow listed in ASX in 1999
Headquarters Sydney, Australia (headquarters)
Key people Wayne Passlow,Stuart Powell
Industry Telecommunications
Products Telco Systems, Management Systems
Website www.ot.com.au

Open Telecommunications is a defunct software company supplying the telecommunications industry. The company was founded by Wayne Passlow as a private company in North Sydney, Australia.

Open Telecommunications provides products and services that collectively deliver a new generation of telecommunications network infrastructure. The Open Telecommunications infrastructure includes switching products, content and services, and management systems.

At its peak, Open Tel (AX:OTT) claimed to serve the five continents with long list of clients including Samsung and LG Electronics in South Korea, telcos in The Netherlands, USA, and Peru. Local customers include: Optus, OneTel and COMindico (also founded by Wayne Passlow). The company also enjoyed financial and technological backing from the networking giant Cisco Systems.

The junior telco shared the same powerful backers as the defunct OneTel: James Packer and Lachlan Murdoch. It also suffered the same unfortunate fate as OneTel.

However, unlike OneTel, The telco downfall is more due to unfavourable market rather than mis-management. The painful crash start in 2000 before finally going into voluntary administration in April 2002, when its shares were trading at five cents.

Contents

[edit] A chronological outline of the Open Tel story

 Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (October 2007)

[edit] The Beginning

The company started in late 1995 with a few software developers from Telstra and Optus. The Managing Director, Wayne Passlow was a successful Sales Manager for Sun Microsystems in Australasia.

[edit] Expansion

In August 1999, the company acquired the business of Siemens Research, the Australian network management business unit of Siemens located in Melbourne. In March 2000, Open Telecommunications completed the acquisition of wireless telecommunications software developer, Indian Pacific Communications.

[edit] Listing in ASX

Open Telecommunications Ltd was listed in ASX with the highest first day price increase in history. The Share price went up more than four folds the IPO price.

[edit] Bubble Burst

The downfall of Open Tel was well documented in the news in Australia. At times, they were allegations that some of the employee's entitlements were not met by Open Tel. For some the process was painfully long and slow.

[edit] External links

Media coverage

Research Paper