NBN Co has awarded four construction contracts valued at more than $1 billion to upgrade homes and businesses across Australia to fibre to the premises (FTTP).
The contracts are part of the NBN’s $2.9 billion investment to upgrade large parts of the fibre to the node network to FTTP.
Downer Group, Fulton Hogan Utilities, Lendlease Services and Ventia, through its Visionstream subsidiary, have been awarded the contracts which cover design and construction.
To date, more than 1.1 million homes and businesses are currently serviced by FTTN have been tagged for upgrades and up to two million will become eligible for the upgrade to FTTP, on demand by 2023.
NBN contractor Foxcomm installs an FTTN on the corner of Parry and Darby Street, Cooks Hill, Newcastle.
NBN Co plans to upgrade around 75 percent of households and businesses to FTTP within the period.
The new contracts are expected to generate up to 10,000 jobs during the peak design and construction stage.
The upgrade work on local fibre network upgrades commenced late last year.
NBN Co said the first two tranches of upgrade with the new fibre targeted around 200,000 premises.
The new contracts will cover the balance of the 1.8 million additional premises eligible for upgrades from FTTN to FTTP within two years.
“Not only will this work help deliver greater broadband access to more homes and businesses, but these network investments will also help stimulate job creation and retention through new build activities that would otherwise have scaled down at the end of our initial build,” said NBN COO, Kathrine Dyer. Of course, the hoary old question of “Why wasn’t this done in the first place?” will always hang around until the program is completed, but we’re not going there.
