AAPT is a fixed-line telecommunications wholesaler owned by Vocus Group. It owns significant fibre and internet infrastructure in Australia. Its national network offers data, cloud, voice and internet services.
History
AAPT was conceived over a working lunch in the late 1980s when Lee Casey and executives from the technical division scratched out on a table napkin the idea.[1] The company was formed by the division of the communications businesses of Australian Associated Press. In 1992 AAPIS was formed with News Corporation and John Fairfax Holdings as majority shareholders, with MCI and Todd Capital also possessing shares in the company.
The company began operating as the first significant competitor to Telstra in the long-distance voice and data markets in 1991, offering point to point microwave shots to AAP's private exchanges in Sydney and Melbourne, offering STD and International Long Distance services using the AAP's leased backbone, (which at the time was one of the largest private backbone networks in Australia) and terminating calls through a hybrid of its own network and various international and domestic interconnection agreements.