NEW YORK: Telstra is going to plan and design work on the National Broadband Network early next year. It is the part of a new four-year deal, worth up to $390 million, to assist NBN Co with the rollout.
The deal comes on the back of Telstra signing a renegotiated $11 billion deal for the rollout of the Coalition’s multi-technology NBN model, in which the telco will progressively sell its copper and HFC networks to NBN Co.
Telstra will help with the plans and designs of fibre-to-the-node, fibre-to-the-basement and fibre-to-the-premise.
“We’re pleased to have won this work in a competitive market and we look forward to working with NBN Co to help it prepare for the construction of the next phase of the NBN,” Telstra chief operations officer Kate McKenzie said.
Telstra said the value of the contract is base on the four-year timeframe and is subject to the rate of progress in the NBN rollout and future price reviews.
Telstra finished Friday up 1.2 per cent at $5.89, a 13-year closing high.
Telstra was awarded the contract as “part of a competitive tender process and contains volume and cost flexibility based on performance,” NBN Co executive general manager of corporate affairs Karina Keisler said.
“Telstra is expected to commence planning and design work for the NBN in the New Year so as to support construction at scale from the middle of the year onwards,” Ms Keisler said.
Further deals surrounding construction and maintenance are expected in the coming months. Telstra remains in discussion with NBN Co on these deals. NBN Co chief executive Bill Morrow indicated he would like to leverage Telstra’s expertise but “only if it’s at market competitive rates.”
Competition boss Rod Sims told Fairfax Media earlier this week that the incumbent telco’s greater involvement with the NBN rollout was a natural fit, given Telstra’s experience in network and systems building.
“Getting Telstra involved makes perfect sense, no doubt about that,” Mr Sims told Fairfax Media.
“The issue that we all have to keep an eye on is what information they get relative to their competitors. It’s crucial that NBN make information available to everybody at the same time.”
To ensure that Telstra does not gain an unfair advantage from its increased role in the NBN, the federal government is asking the telecommunications industry and the Australia Competition and Consumer Commission to help develop a new carrier licence to impose on NBN Co that will ensure all retail providers receive rollout information at the same time.
Getting Telstra on board is a vital development in the government’s plan to connect Australians to faster broadband. Telstra stands to benefit further from this deal thanks to playing a larger part on the rollout.
Under the Coalition’s multi-technology model, NBN Co is aiming to hit 1.9 million homes by the middle of 2016. This is mainly because of the plan to start rolling out fibre to the basement (FTTB) to 20 multi-dwelling units a month in the near term.
However, this does not include Telstra and Optus’s HFC networks, meaning even more people could be connected by this date.
NBN Co will begin a customer pilot on the cable television infrastructure it acquired from Telstra and Optus, as part of the multi-technology NBN, in the final quarter of next year, with commercial services to be offered at the beginning of 2016.
