NBN regional backbone contract given to Alcatel-Lucent
As part of the initial infrastructure of the National Broadband network (NBN) in Australia it has recently been announced by Alcatel-Lucent that leading optical platforms will be deployed by Nextgen Networks.
The $250 million Regional Backbone Blackspots Program launched by the Australian government to provide the main regional centres of the country with competitive backhaul links has now seen Nextgen Networks, a specialist companies that provides high-quality data services throughout Australia winning the tender bid.
The delivery of its Transport Service Switches (TSS), long haul Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) and its Photonic Service Switches (PSS), that will provide highly flexible and future-proof optical transmissions over the next 18 months as the new fibre links are rolled out, will be started immediately by Alcatel-Lucent, which will be Nextgen Networks’ main optical equipment supplier.
The managing director of Nextgen Networks, Phil Sykes recently said “This is a significant milestone for Nextgen Networks and will enable more people and businesses in regional cities and towns to access competitive broadband and mobile services. It is one of the first building blocks of Australia’s NBN. Based on their global optical leadership and an established, successful eight year partnership with us, Alcatel-Lucent was the obvious choice to work with to meet Australia’s growing demand for backhaul capacity.”
The managing director of Alcatel-Lucent in Australia, Andrew Butterworth said “We have the technology ready and all the right people in place to get started straight away on this deployment, which is a great step forward for the Government’s wider NBN vision. Supported by the best of breed technology and established services we are providing, Nextgen Networks will deploy a network that will easily scale to meet the dramatically increasing backhaul capacity demands that we anticipate the NBN to drive over the next eight years and beyond.”
Source – Webwire
