Platform Networks makes NBN connections

Platform Networks has brought five service providers onto a wholesale aggregation service that now includes connections to the National Broadband Network.

The company was one of several to stake its claim for the aggregation space in the past week. Nextgen Networks and AAPT were also vying for share in the space.

Platform's managing director David Hooton said its wholesale aggregation product had been operating the past month in Armidale.

"We want to provide a safe harbour for the smaller guys, the guys who are probably going to be edged out of the market, who can't afford the infrastructure to directly interconnect [with NBN Co]," he said.

Platform's aggregation product would be expanded to take traffic from the other five mainland NBN first release sites as they came online later this year.

Customers had engaged in a two-tier on-boarding process through Platform Networks to connect to the company's leased backhaul as well as the NBN test site.

Trial NBN aggregation services were being offered free to customers, with Platform absorbing the costs of network traffic outside NBN Co's connectivity virtual circuit.

NBN Co was yet to charge sub-wholesale or retail service providers for accessing the networks at either its trial Tasmanian or mainland sites.

It was expected to begin billing for services from October 1.

Hooton said he envisaged offering a "remarkably similar" product to Nextgen's in future, with active connections to all 121 NBN points of interconnect.

Service providers would interconnect with Platform at one of ten points of presence at each major capital city bar Darwin, with three each in Sydney and Brisbane.

Hooton said that while Platform would remain focused as a Tier 2 carrier, the NBN wholesale aggregation offerings would not differ significantly from its current product set.

"We view the NBN as yet another carrier we'll be adding on, they just might have a slightly more complicated interconnect requirement," he said.

Competition within the sub-wholesale market was expected to grow with the wholesale divisions of Telstra and Optus expressing interest in providing similar aggregation products in future.