Telecom’s IT services division has bounced back from its loss of a $60 million NZDF contract, landing a six-year deal with Fonterra that one insider pegs at $100 million-plus.

Gen-i displaces Fonterra’s encumbent Telecommunications Infrastructure Services provider, EDS (recently bought by HP), which serviced the giant diary exporter through a series outsourcing deals.

While gen-i and Fonterra refuse to publically put a number on the deal, one insider says it’s among gen-i’s largest ever contracts, on a par with its massive four-year deal with ACC, signed in May 2008 and worth $125 million, and its May 2007 ANZ/National Bank contract, worth $100 million.

The deal represents a reversal of fortune for gen-i, which just before Christmas lost a five-year NZDF contract, worth up to $60 million, to TelstraClear and Vodafone.

Under the deal, gen-i will provide WAN services for New Zealand and Australia Fonterra sites, and desk telephony for the 47 global sites. LAN services and WAN infrastructure for the New Zealand and Australian sites will be transitioned to gen-i later this year.

AT&T has been contracted to provide direct WAN and LAN infrastructure and management services for Fonterra’s sites located outside of New Zealand and Australia.