Telstra and NBN Co in greenfield fibre deal

NBN Co has struck an interim deal to use Telstra's systems to process applications from new housing developers seeking NBN fibre infrastructure for their estates.

Chief executive Mike Quigley confirmed the arrangement today, which he said had been in place since NBN Co assumed its Greenfields responsibilities on January 1.

"We're purchasing a managed service from Telstra for the front-end until we can stand up our own [application processing] capabilities," Quigley said.

"It's a logical thing to do. We had to scramble to make [our greenfields responsibilities] happen."

Telstra had previously been responsible for processing applications from new housing developers, predominately for the rollout of copper infrastructure in new estates.

iTnews has learned that the NBN Co expects to have its own IT systems in place to manage the application process by the middle of the year.

NBN Co had received over 368 requests for NBN fibre from housing developers since the beginning of the year and expected to inherit another 1,000 more from Telstra.

The network builder was evaluating an undisclosed number of responses to an RFP it issued late last year for an interim panel of network builders to meet NBN Co's greenfields fibre mandate obligations.

The successful panellists will bid to install fibre in new housing estates on NBN Co's behalf. They would receive passive fibre, active electronics, cabinets and funding to deploy backhaul to the nearest point of interconnection.

The panel was envisaged only as an interim arrangement with NBN Co expecting to be in the position to roll out fibre itself in new housing estates within 18 months to two years.

An announcement on the interim panel make-up could be made as early as next week; however Quigley did not disclose a timeline, saying only that the panel creation was "no mean feat".