Queensland putting $250 million in fibre backhaul from Townsville to Mount Isa

The Queensland government has announced $250 million of new investment in its Queensland Capacity Network (QCN), which provides carrier backhaul services over fibre built to support electricity distribution networks.

The QCN already claims 13,000 km of fibre, including 2000km of access to Queensland Rail’s fibre network.

Yesterday, premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the investment in her State of the State 2023 address.

The QCN investment will be in parallel to the state’s SuperGrid CopperString 2023 project, which expands electricity transmission between Townsville, a planned renewable energy zone in Hughenden nearly 400km to the south-west, and Mount Isa.

The electrical distribution network will run 500kV from south of Townsville to Hughenden, 330kV from Hughenden to Cloncurry, and 220kV from Cloncurry to Mount Isa.

Palaszczuk said the new investment will create “the largest publicly owned regional fibre network in the nation”, supporting data centres located near renewable energy hubs, as well as providing the connections needed for “advanced manufacturing jobs in regional centres”.

“QCN and Powerlink will begin early works immediately on the Copperstring 2032 section of the Supergrid,” Palaszczuk said. 

“These early works will lay the communications foundations for the construction rollout of Copperstring.”

The rollout would also provide high-speed backhaul to communities along the Flinders Highway, she added.