New fibre contract announced by NBN Tasmania

In the first tender to be issued under the Australian Governments National Broadband Network project the NBN Tasmania has announced that the fibre optic cabling that will be used for the building of the Tasmanian backhaul network will be provided by Corning Cable Systems Pty Ltd.

The NYSE-listed Corning Incorporated is a $6 billion a year ceramic and glass giant, and Corning Cable Systems is one of its local subsidiary companies.

Corning Cable Systems Pty Ltd will be providing 29km of fibre optic cabling to be used for the building of the backhaul network for the Tasmanian NBN according to the Tasmanian Government.

The executive chairman of NBN Tasmania, Mr Doug Campbell said “Today’s announcement again shows NBN Tasmania and Aurora Energy are able to mobilise resources quickly to ensure the roll-out of what will be a landmark development for Tasmania and Australia as a whole.”

He added “By connecting Tasmanian communities via fibre optic cable we are creating a piece of infrastructure that will greatly benefit these communities.”

The initial stage of the fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network for the NBN Tasmania, which will be rolled out to around 5000 households in the communities of Midway Point, Smithton and Scottsdale, will be scheduled to receive deliveries of the fibre optic cabling for between October and November 2009.

The “first sizeable run” of fibre optic cabling that will be for the Tasmanian NBN was prepared by the Company recently as it completed the installation of optical fibre manufacturing equipment at its plant in Clayton, Victoria, according to the managing director of Corning Cable Pty Ltd, Rainer Dittrich.

The Tasmanian region had been set as the starting point for the rollout of the National Broadband Network earlier in the year by the Federal Government and is likely to set the standard for further projects in other regions in the years to come.

Source – CRN