The search for NBN suppliers begins for Terria

The consortium known as Terria which is currently a direct rival of Telstra has begun its search for companies that will be able to supply it with the necessary services and product to help build the federal government’s broadband network.

The federal government’s national broadband network is set to cost around $4.7 billion and both Terria and its rivals Telstra look to be the two main companies in competition to get the contract to build the network. Although a long-standing relationship has been built between Telstra and Alcatel-Lucent, the network hardware supplier, here has been no mention from Terria if it won the bid to build the network who would be supplying it with the necessary equipment and services.

Terria recently published an advertisement stating that it required “construction and telecommunication vendors with experience in equipment supply, civil construction, project management, installation or maintenance” and that any companies interested would need to submit a written capability statement to confirm that they could provide the required resources.

The fact that the NBN rollout would be amongst the largest single infrastructure deployment that Australia had ever built was pointed out by Terria and it stated that the close coordination of various telecommunication vendors and construction companies would be essential if the NBN network rollout was to be a success.

There are a large number of dominant giants in the telecommunications equipment market including companies such as Nortel Networks, Cisco, Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia-Siemens Networks, and Juniper Networks, while in the local construction market there are big companies like Leighton Holdings which is currently very active. Any one of these companies with the exception of Alcatel-Lucent which is already working with Telstra may possibly offer to team up with Terria in an attempt to win this huge contract.