nbn, the company building Australia’s new broadband network, signed a contract with Telstra to manage the design and construction of fast broadband to more than three million homes currently in the footprint of Telstra’s pay-TV cable network (Hybrid-Fibre Coaxial or HFC cable). Once the build is completed, it will be handed to nbn for operation. Telstra valued the contract at approximately A$1.6 billion.
The deal streamlines the existing arrangements nbn has with Telstra, creating a faster rollout schedule and access to all nbn retailers.
nbn said it is on track to make the initial 10,000 HFC premises available for orders by the end June 2016.
nbn CEO Bill Morrow said: “The nbn™ network is now available to two million homes and businesses, with close to one million already connected. This deal will extend the nbn™ network to millions more, bringing new opportunity in education, health and online services to more families.
- In 2011, nbn and Telstra signed the initial Definitive Agreements for the use of existing Telstra infrastructure and the migration of former wholesale customers from Telstra’s legacy network to the nbn network, with payments progressively scheduled as the new services were activated.
- In 2014, the nbn and Definitive Agreements were amended to allow nbn to access and progressively acquire existing Telstra network infrastructure to enable the deployment of the multi-technology mix as required.
