The contract, expected to be worth $100 million over five years, will see Optus provide whole-of-business communications services, including voice, data and mobile, to the retail bank.

John Simon, Managing Director, Optus Business said, "By maintaining and extending our relationship with St George, we have cemented our position as a prime telecommunications service provider to the financial services industry in Australia."

Phil Soutter, General Manager, IT Production, St. George said, "For seven years, Optus has demonstrated that it has the scale and flexibility to provide commercial and operational efficiency, whilst remaining nimble and responsive to our business needs. This new contract brings our two organisations significantly closer as we partner on projects that create even greater value for our customers."

An example of this is St. George's adoption of Optus' new advanced communications network, Optus Evolve, across its 400 strong branch network. Optus Evolve is an application-aware network that delivers business grade IP services using multiple levels of Quality of Service (QoS). Evolve will provide St George with the core infrastructure on which it can build new or emerging functionality, as required.

"Optus is committed to helping our customers gain and maintain a competitive advantage. We look forward to extending our relationship with St. George beyond traditional communications services by leveraging our end-to-end ICT capability and industry expertise," Mr Simon said.

Under the terms of the contract, Optus will manage multiple data networks to support St George's corporate/branch office, ATM, EFTPOS and mobile data needs. St George will also take advantage of Optus' 3G network, which will support its mobile and Blackberry fleets. In addition, Optus will provide EFTPOS facilities to St. George's large merchant user base.

Optus will also work with St. George to bring further innovation to other strategic areas of the bank.