CeBIT09: Axia NetMedia ‘toying’ with NBN re-entry

Axia's vice president for global business development and marketing, Mark Blake, revealed precious little of the company's plans for ongoing participation in the network build at CeBIT this morning.

But he confirmed to iTnews that "certain elements" of the proposal it had submitted as part of the RFP could be extracted and used in the Government's proposed $43 billion NBN.

"The opportunity [for participation] has got bigger rather than smaller, but I think it's too early to tell exactly what our role might be," Blake said.

"The Government will likely spend the next nine months on its evaluation study which I think will answer a lot of the current question marks over how the network is to be structured.

"There's certainly interest from Axia to participate. The fact it went to FTTP is particularly interesting - we just have to figure out how we can get involved."

Blake said that Axia's response to the RFP did not include provisions for fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) technology.

"We didn't think FTTN was the right solution for Australia," he said.

Blake said Axia had looked at the backhaul blackspot initiative, but he was unable to confirm whether the company would look to bid alone for a piece of that funding or as part of a local consortium.