Ventia scores fibre upgrade contract with NBN Co

Infrastructure provider Ventia has won a contract with NBN Co for the national broadband builder's ongoing fibre upgrade project.

Under the N2P evolution contract, Ventia will provide design and build services to NBN Co and is expected to deliver $400 million in revenue over the next two and a half years, subject to work orders and volumes.

Work under the contract is expected to start immediately.

The program is part of NBN Co's ongoing fibre rollout, which will enable eligible premises connected via fibre-to-the-node technology to upgrade up to fibre-to-the-premises for works across Queensland, NSW and Victoria, according to group executive of telecommunications Tim Harwood. 

In February, NBN Co named the next locations to receive extensions, which included Maitland, NSW; Deer Park, Victoria; Albany Creek, Queensland; and Gepps Cross, South Australia.

Ventia CEO Dean Banks said the contract was the latest instalment in the decade-long relationship between the infrastructure provider and NBN Co. 

"We will be using our knowledge of the NBN network - combined with our extensive experience managing other large-scale telecommunication network build and maintenance programs - to continue supporting the delivery of improved digital connectivity for our communities," he said. 

In fact, Harwood claimed that Ventia was a vital player in the establishment and perseveration of the network. 

"We were instrumental in the delivery of the initial NBN build program and the subsequent maintenance of the NBN network over the past decade, and we are looking forward to delivering this new program of work," Harwood added.

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Last year, Ventia was given the all-clear to buy fellow infrastructure services manager Broadspectrum by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) back in April, with the national competition watchdog claiming the two companies generally offered differentiated services with minimal overlap. 

"We looked at this proposed acquisition closely to ensure strong competition remains in the supply of infrastructure services to industries with a direct impact on consumer prices," ACCC Commissioner Stephen Ridgeway said at the time. 

"We contacted many customers of infrastructure services, and received consistent feedback that there is sufficient competition from alternative suppliers and that companies will continue to have a variety of options when contracting for infrastructure services."