VHA boosts tower links for mobile broadband

Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) plans to upgrade its backhaul capacity to base stations across Australia to cater for growing mobile broadband traffic.

The telco has signed agreements with TPG Telecom (PIPE) and Nextgen Networks.

The Nextgen deal was understood to be valued in the tens of millions of dollars. It covered sites in metropolitan Perth and Adelaide and over 50 regional locations.

Meanwhile, the TPG agreement covered tower sites in NSW, Queensland and Victoria.

Nextgen already had an existing agreement with VHA providing backhaul to mobile towers and high-capacity inter-capital transit services.

Nextgen managing director Phil Sykes told iTnews that the new capacity represented an "order of magnitude" increase compared to what VHA had prior.

He said Nextgen would "exploit a significant part of its national network" under the new contract.

"We're also going out to base stations and building some substantial urban fibre loops [to service the contract]," he told iTnews.

"We're investing substantially in the contract."

Sykes expected the latest contract would ultimately drive up VHA's intercapital bandwidth requirements.

Likewise, TPG said that it would utilise its existing dark fibre network that it inherited from its acquisition of PIPE Networks and also build "approximately 900km of dark fibre" links over the next two years to satisfy the contract.

"Initial designs are well underway and first services under the contract will be delivered mid-2011," PIPE chief Jason Sinclair said in a statement.

"This is the largest customer contract in the history of PIPE Networks."