Broadband operators can now place tenders for NBN build says Conroy

The initial stage of the National Broadband Network (NBN) is to begin in Tasmania and the Federal Government has now advised that it will be looking for tenders to build the network.

During the official opening in George Town of Basslink’s fibre optic cable that stretches across the Bass Straight Stephen Conroy, the communications minister and David Bartlett, the Tasmanian premier made the announcement of the need for tenders for the building of the new network.

The project that is set to cost around $43 billion and is set to roll out in the second quarter of 2010 will see Tasmania as the first of the Australian states to receive super-fast broadband connections over the National broadband network. The state will receive wholesale-only, open access broadband network services said Senator Conroy.

The plans by the Federal Government to form a new company with investment from itself and the public sector of as much as $43 billion over the next eight years in order to build super-fast broadband network.

Once the new network becomes operational the Government, which will be the majority shareholder, has said that the private sector will be able to make contribution of assets or a monetary investment as it sells down its interest within the following five years.

The time it would take for the NBN to be deployed would mean that Australia would still end up falling behind many other parts of the world in term of broadband speed according to an internet expert.

Paul Twomey, who was born in Australia, has been in charge of the US-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number (ICANN) for the last 10 years, although he recently left the company to work as chief of the National Office of the Information Economy for the Australian Government.

He advised that the current forerunners for Internet technology were countries in Asia saying “The leading ‘fibre to the premises’ countries mainly are Japan [and] Korea. The Singaporese put out a tender for gigabit to a home in February. [The broadband network] would certainly take Australia back up those ratings but you’ve got to remember the Government says this is going to take eight years to build so we’re a certain period behind.

www.abc.net.au