​NBN signs partners for HFC construction

The National Broadband Network (NBN) company has signed multi-technology integrated master agreements (MIMAs) with six delivery partners as part of bringing the Telstra hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) network in Australia into the NBN

Lend Lease, Broadspectrum, Fulton Hogan, Downer, ISGM, and BSA have been appointed to carry out the construction from August onwards, which will eventually see 900,000 premises ready for service on the HFC network by June 2017.

It is understood that the total value of the six deals is about $300 million for the first year, with further work to be determined by the progress of construction.

Specifically, ISGM will be responsible for rolling out the NBN network to more than 50,000 Victorian premises in the Wheelers Hill area.

Meanwhile Lend Lease -- which currently works on NBN infrastructure in Orange and Wagga Wagga in New South Wales; Redcliffe, Queensland; and Frankston, Victoria -- said it will be delivering the network infrastructure in the Sydney North and Gold Coast regions.

For its part, BSA has won a five-year telecommunications infrastructure contract, with revenue to reach $50 million during the first year, complimenting its existing contract.

NBN chief network engineering officer Peter Ryan said the additional construction and upgrading of the HFC network will be deployed to enable the company to achieve its 2020 targets.

"With this process we have ensured the most appropriate delivery partners are doing the work. They have enormous experience in construction in the telecommunications industry which will help us roll it out faster," he said.

HFC will connect four million premises in total, with 3.6 million coming from the old Telstra HFC network.

At the end of last year, NBN entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Telstra for a "significant contract" to manage the design, engineering, procuring, and construction of NBN's hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) network currently within Telstra's HFC footprint.

The NBN successfully completed its 4,500 premises HFC trial in Redcliffe, Queensland earlier this year, saying at the time it was able to deliver download speeds of up to 100Mbps and upload speeds of up to 40Mbps, with average speeds of 84Mbps down/33Mbps up. The trial saw retail service providers (RSPs) Telstra, iiNet, and Exetel deliver HFC services across the Optus HFC networking running DOCSIS 3.0 technology.

Two weeks ago, NBN declared its HFC network in Redcliffe ready for service.

The NBN in its current multi-technology mix profile plans to have 875,000 premises ready for service on the HFC network by mid next year, and 200,000 of these activated.

With AAP