NBN Co builds up fibre component stock

NBN Co has sourced fibre components and equipment from six manufacturers at a cost of up to $635 million over the next five years.

Two Australian-owned firms made the cut - Madison Technologies and Warren & Brown - while three other international players were selected in part due to their Australian presence.

"We have worked to domestically source as much equipment for the NBN as possible," NBN Co CEO Mike Quigley said.

"However, we needed to balance costs against the preference for Australian-made to arrive at a cost-effective result.

"We have sourced a range of equipment to form a catalogue of consistent, quality components that our installation contractors can use to suit different housing and commercial building types."

It is the second NBN deal struck with manufacturer Warren & Brown, which won a $50 million deal earlier this year to supply optical distribution frames and sub-racks.

The company's latest contract with NBN Co is to supply optical fibre wall outlets for use on every house in the fibre rollout area.

"We are gaining a level of confidence from NBN Co and feel sure we have the design and manufacturing capability to handle more local manufacturing," Warren & Brown managing director Neil Domelow said.

The other Australian firm, Madison, picked up a potential $30 million of work supplying premise connection devices. 

However, the majority of work did go to overseas-based firms.

Corning landed the biggest chunk of work - a potential $310 million deal supplying fibre distribution hubs and terminals for apartment blocks and offices, various drop and multi-fibre cables and patch leads.

The next largest supply contracts went to offshore tie-up Optimal/OFS for premises cables ($110 million in potential value) and TE for $105 million worth of fibre distribution equipment. The latter company had previously won a $100 million contract for miscellaneous fibre drop cables.

3M picked up work that could total up to $20 million over five years.

The deals were struck as NBN Co moved into a major construction phase after recently announcing its 12-month rollout plans.

"As we only recently announced our 12-month rollout schedule – with construction to start in areas covering over half a million premises – today's announcement is an important part of the development of our supply chain," Quigley said.