National Broadband Network builders announced, including Telstra
- 14 July, 2010 15:46
- Comments 17
NBN Co has announced the winning companies that will build mainland Australia’s first four National Broadband Network sites.
The successful contractors are:
- Silcar Pty Ltd for Armidale, NSW
- Transfield Services for Minnamurra/Kiama Downs, NSW
- ETSA Utilities for Willunga, SA
- Ergon Energy for Townsville, QLD
Telstra is in negotiations to build the fifth at Brunswick, Victoria, using existing ducts and pipes.
NBN Co CEO, Mike Quigley, said this is the second phase of the rollout. Retail service providers will then come on board to offer NBN services to customers inside the sites.
Only one of the successful contractors from the first phase of the rollout, Transfield Services, has been picked to take part in this stage. Homes and businesses in the sites will all be connected to the fibre optic network free of charge.
“The sites will have a mix of underground and aerial deployment determined by a combination of factors, including the availability of existing underground ducts or overhead power poles to access premises,” Quigley said.
According to NBN Co head of construction, Patrick Flannagan, the deal with Telstra is in its final stages of negotiation.
“I don’t see any major issues there. The mood at Telstra is quite positive and cooperative,” he said. “We have after all signed a pretty substantial heads of agreement so the feel of the thing is we’re working closely to get it built.
Flannagan claimed the signing of the financial heads of agreement with Telstra had no impact on its successful win at the Brunswick.
“We want to work with as many of our potential contracting companies,” he said. “We’ve chosen five different companies to work with so we want to start to build some of those relationships.”
While NBN Co’s announcement of second release sites included plans to expand the original five, Flannagan said there was no guarantee these contractors would be allowed stay on.
Construction giant, John Holland, was responsible for the rollout of Tasmania’s National Broadband Network and had tendered for work in this stage. Despite a case where a young worker was electrically shocked, Flannagan said this was not a reflection on John Holland’s performance in Tasmania.
“Incidents on projects like this will unfortunately occur and it’s how you deal with them when they occur that is most important,” he said. “I wouldn’t say it negatively impacted on John Holland at all.”
Flannagan said while council approval would not be required in areas where the fibre cabling runs underground or has a low impact, it would be needed in some cases when it is installed overhead.
“We’re making sure we get the right sorts of local council engagement and approval where required,” he said. “There are no problems on that front… people are saying “me next” and “when are you coming here?
“We’ll commence construction within four to six weeks,” he added. “We hope to be finished by later on this year.”
The announcement comes on the back of mainland Australia's second release sites being nominated.
Nominations for the 2012 ARN IT Industry Awards open on Tuesday, June 12.
- Bookmark this page
- Share this article
- Got more on this story? Email ARN
- Follow ARN on twitter
- Red Light In the Control Centre Saves Hours of Chaos
- Spectra Logic and Australian National University Success Story - March 2012
- Aberdeen Group: Building Business Resilience Through Active Archive
- In Search of the Long-Term Archiving Solution —Tape Delivers Significant TCO Advantage over Disk
- Market Potential-Strategy Guide to the Active Archive Market
-
Italian mathematician prepares to challenge Google
-
Facebook could buy Nokia to build 'FacePhone', expert claims
-
It's not all Doom at new media conference
-
Tech Watch: Who watches the datacentre?
-
Facebook scammers host Trojan horse extensions on the Chrome Web Store
Get exclusive access to ARN's news, research and invitation only events. 
Comments
Canberra Watcher
They'd best get a to work soon. Three years on, $300 million spent, only three test users connected.
At this rate they'll get 430 people connected before the $43Bn runs out!
If they can only be 25,000x better on expenditure and 1,500,000x better on schedule, they'll be back on target...
Francis
@CanberraWatcher, if you don't budget a few percent of the project for the design phase, then you might as well double the cost to cover all the repair work. You weren't involved in the insulation fiasco, by any chance?
RS
@#1
Three years on you say?
Umm the FTTP announcement was made 7 April 2009. About 15 months ago, NOT 3 years ago...
http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media_releases/2009/022
Maybe you'd better get your facts straight before your inevitable reply! Or you'll come off looking foolish...A G A I N.
Daniel
@RS, Alot of the people think it's ok to bash a government, they don't know most of the details or what work is involved in such projects like this.
I'm sure alot of people expect the government to get everything right, everything ontime and on budget.
Maybe even built overnight too.
RobD
So where is the news on the remaining mainland sites?
No mention of the WA nominations, not even a 'The other four sites are yet to go to tender' or the like.
Ship
@RS
Sure the gorvenment changed its mind a few times and the last time they changed it may have been on the 7th April.
So if the gorvernment changes its mind again do we start the clock again?
Francis
@RobD, a couple of the 14 new sites already have construction contracts announced, even though they were only announced on Friday. There are fewer than ten companies in Australia capable of rolling out new fibre to premises, so the tender process happens through direct negotiation, considering their respective technical resources deliverable to the locality.
@RS, it's a good point! Fortunately, the reason the government "changed its mind" in 2009 is because the tenders submitted for its OPEL-replacement Fibre-to-the-Node NBN (Mark I) demonstrated that adequate broadband would not be delivered to regional Australia and urban blackspots. They then finally heeded the collective advice of industry experts and announced a Fibre-to-the-Home NBN. The May 2010 Implementation Study conducted comparative costing for every cluster of premises in the country, and showed that all but 7% of premises could be delivered fibre more cheaply than wireless or satellite. This is where we are at, and the construction is underway, starting with unserved and under-served regional and urban localities where the local council has undertaken to grant grant quick approvals to access requests, and where good backhaul fibre exists.
Although the coffers have been drained, which may slow the initial rollout (also permitting more cabler training to occur), both parties now have the same goal in their sights, though differing approaches to its financial oversight.
Daniel Gara
In other news, the federal Labor government has allocated $500m to the training of carrier pigeons...
James
The criticism of this broadband plan is made by people that do not understand the improvement this roll out will create.
Australia is miles behind all other countries, we still have download limits here!
The economic benefits for companies with fast internet far outweighs the cost of the roll out.
RM
I detest Labor and almost everything they stand for. But God this is a good thing for Australia.
My dad asked me last night what the hell this expensive thing was all about.
I said that for once a Labor government is building for the future. I wish I could convince people how important this project is.
Anthony
@9 - "Australia is miles behind all other countries, we still have download limits here!"
Most countries will probably end up with download limits as speeds increase. Upgrading the technology to support more data transfer is expensive, so logically those who use the most data should pay for it.
Adam
who is building WA's network???
Michael
@9 - AFAIK the main reason we have download limits here is that we sit so far away from the main Internet trunks that run around the Northern Hemisphere. We rely on so much data from the US and other parts of the bottom of the world (it's all relative :)
If we were to only download content from Australia, providers could afford to remove download restrictions and it would be faster too !
Tom
@Adam,
Nobody knows who is building the WA network yet. It hasn't been placed on tender yet.
At least I don't think so...
Sydney Lawrence
Of course a FTTP system would be acceptable to all Australians provided the cost of the service remains the same or less than it is at present. I think this will not be the case. With an investment of up to 43 billion dollars and an expected acceptable return on investment ( to allow the proposed Government sale of the project shortly after completion) cost to consumers must increase above current charges.
Of particular interest will be the Abbott plan for the NBN should he be elected P.M. after the next election. I would think he would be in contact and discussion with Telstra now to establish what Telstra could suggest for the roll-out of a high speed Internet system for Australians that will not destroy the Australian taxpayer for decades into the future.
RS
@#15... Like I said to your twin over at ZDNet who was taliking about the waste of $65b paid by Telstra shareholders, with an NBN.
"$65b for Telstra and their superseded, ill-maintained copper… Makes the flash, faster, better, brand new, job creating, fibre (wireless and satellite) NBN, seem like an out and out bargain at “only $43b” then, eh?" {END}
I see like before the last election too, you are again clutching at straws and offering the vote of the Lawrence family to whoever promises the most pieces of TLS share silver!
Funny though, Tony Smith has suggested they will look at rehashing OPEL instead of the NBN - one of the very reasons you voted them out, LOL!
RS
@#6 sorry for the tardiness of reply Ship, I missed your comment above...
Ship...who replied to my comment to Canberra Watcher using the exact same words - start the clock - Canberra Watcher used in our debate over at CW comment #10, OMG!
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/353151/nbn_co_selects_contractors_mainland_fibre_roll/
It has nothing to do with starting the clock again Ship, it has to do with a claim you (oops sorry Canberra Watcher) made, which was clearly an incorrect swipe at the current NBN!
Just be man enough to admit you were WRONG and move on.
Considering it's only been 15 months not 3 years, with all the bureucracy and the correct competitive processes, involved in such a mammoth task. Plus the political hurdles being placed by the opposition/Senate and Telstra, it's a credible effort I believe.
For the record (refer #1 above) Canberra Watcher mentioned $43b the FTTP cost, not the previous $4.7b FTTN cost/policies/ technologies.
He also mentioned 3 people being connected (which was the first 3 connected to the NBN).
His numbers, were exclusively related to the current FTTP NBN and nothing else.
So A G A I N. FTTP, which is what we are all (including you) commenting about, was announced 7 April 2009.
As you are clearly not man enough to admit your FUD has backfired, I look forward to another lame response, thank you, LOL!
Post new comment