Nextgen digs WA and NSW regional backhaul links

By Tanya Hall on May 17, 2010 11:25 AM
Filed under Networking

One-eighth of Backbone Blackspots Project completed in three months.


See all pictures here »

Work is set to commence on the New South Wales and Western Australian links of the Federal Government's $250 million broadband blackspots project this week.

Nextgen Networks, which won the $250 million tender to build the backhaul links, told iTnews it is on track to complete the project within the original timeframe set by the Government.

Managing director Phil Sykes told iTnews the project would "definitely be finished in 18 months."

"We passed the 500 km mark a couple of weeks ago and now nearly 1000 km has been done," he said.

Nextgen Networks has commenced work on the additional 2000 km link up the centre of Australia from Tarcoola in South Australia, to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.

Skyes said that this connection would complete a loop through the blackspot region that will improve the resilience of the network.

"We're starting work in many different places at the same time and will complete the project with a great deal of parallel work happening at the same time," he said.

"One crew completed 26 km in a day which is a record for us."

Work in Geraldton, Western Australia is due to start tomorrow, and is expected to be completed by mid-March 2011.

Backbone infrastructure construction in remote Broken Hill, NSW will commence today.

The new network will provide 800 breakout points of interconnect, positioned in 10 km spaces, aimed at enabling carriers to use the network.

"Our mission is to get Optus, Vodafone and [other] ISPs to gain access to this backbone network, so we're committed to making it efficient and cost effective for them to use," Sykes said.

He said that Nextgen will provide DSL capabilities to provide ISPs with the option to use virtual ports to connect to the network.

"We've taken a 50-year view on the network in terms of future-proofing the physical network to provide a high level of capacity for a long period of time."

The Regional Backbone Blackspots plan (click image to enlarge)
For more detailed and up-to-date maps, see image gallery (top right)

4 comments in this discussion

"@ Digger11 Not that most Aussies are Lazy, but that there are no other options... I live 4.5km from the exchange and used to sync at 3-4Mbps with Internode and paid $49.95 for 30GB per month ..."

By scan06disk

Tags

nextgen, nbn, national broadband network, backhaul, regional backbone blackspots, wa, nsw

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Comments: 4

singo79 May 17, 2010 7:43 PM	Excellent, so I should expect to see cheaper broadband in my location within 18 months. Though I will say that Telstra have shown a lot of determination lately in terms of being more cost effective and value for money, which is a pleasant surprise. Only time will tell where things will go.
Digger11 May 18, 2010 8:44 AM	Telstra will do a QANTAS/Jetstar and only drop prices wherever competition appears. They will still gouge the last cent out of you if they think that there is no competition. For this reason I would dump them like a hot potato on principle when NBN type services are available. Unfortunately, most other Aussies won't as most of us are too lazy.
anonymous May 18, 2010 12:19 PM	It's a pity that Telstra only seem to show any interest in providing cost effective and current-tech services in the areas where competition has become a factor. Perhaps they should put some of their vast legal and promotional budgets into improving their standard offerings available to ALL the punters?
scan06disk May 18, 2010 1:09 PM	@ Digger11 Not that most Aussies are Lazy, but that there are no other options... I live 4.5km from the exchange and used to sync at 3-4Mbps with Internode and paid $49.95 for 30GB per month that i can't theoretically use, ADSL2+ is rubbish after 3Km+... I had no option but to choose Bigpond Cable, which provides me with an average download speed of 21Mbps, faster than your average ADSL2+ download speed, and to top it i pay $49.95 for 25GB, would you wanna leave them now ???