Macquarie Corporate Telecommunications yesterday announced a net profit of $8.1 million for the 1998 financial year, boosting its chances of a successful public float in 1999.
The financial success is also encouraging news for the company as it gears up for the launch of a fully competitive data network in 1999.
David Tudehope, Macquarie Corporate Telecommunications chief executive told ComputerWorld the company believes "packed-based switching is critical" to its success in the corporate data access market.
"Right now there aren't many data networks out there," he said.
Focused solely on Australia's top 5000 corporate customers, Tudehope attributes the results to Macquarie's "facilities management" focus.
"Nobody wants to muck around with day-to-day telecommunications," he said. "We take over the administration and day-to-day administration of a customer's telecommunications infrastructure."
Macquarie's net profit after tax for the 1998 financial year was $5.1 million, compared with $3.9 million in 1997.
The company boasts a churn rate of around 5 per cent a year, compared with an industry average of around 25 per cent.
As a result, the company claims the figures make Macquarie Australia's most profitable, fixed network telecommunications company after Telstra.
Meanwhile, Tudehope signalled the company is considering launching a competitive local call service in Australia if it can talk Telstra around.
"Behind the scenes we've been having a strong battle with Telstra for a number of years," he said.
"In our view, there is a massive monopoly in local calls."
In addition, Tudehope hit out at Telstra's profits in fixed telephone to mobile calls.
"Why does it cost more to call a mobile across the road than to call America?"