Australia's Telstra plans to move jobs to India - report

1.00pm

SYDNEY - Telstra is planning to move at least 300 information technology jobs offshore.

The bulk of application development and software maintenance work on Telstra's core billing systems would be moved overseas, the Australian newspaper reported on its website.

Telstra currently outsources its billing applications to US company Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in Australia.

But EDS has told staff working on Telstra projects in Sydney and Melbourne that the work would be moved to EDS facilities in India, the Australian said.

It is understood a five-year contract worth more than A$100 million ($107.14 million) would be signed with the Indian operation before the end of the year.

Work will be transferred out of Australia in stages over the next 15 months, the report said.

The move comes as Telstra seeks to halve its A$1.5 billion IT costs.

A Telstra spokesman told the Australian the decision to relocate the work overseas was made to improve quality, reduce cycle times and lower costs.

An EDS Australia spokeswoman would not say how many staff would be affected by the move.

But she said as EDS picked up other technology outsourcing contracts in Australia, staff would be redeployed.

- AAP