Axia - the dark horse in the $600m broadband Connect Infrastructure race.

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 16 May 2007 17:12

Business IT - Networking

Canadian company, Axia NetMedia Corporation has revealed that it has put in a bid for the Government's $600m of broadband Connect Infrastructure funding, with plans to rollout extensive new infrastructure that would serve also the needs of the WA and Queensland Governments.

Axia has a track record of rolling out competitive large scale broadband networks: it is the operator and manager of Canada's Alberta SuperNet and has won contracts in 12 provinces (Departments) in France to build out new broadband fibre and wireless networks.

Chairman and CEO, Art Price, detailed the company's operations in a presentation to ATUG's regional telecommunications conference in Canberra today and afterwards he told iTWire: "We made a bid like that [the Alberta SuperNet] to the BCIF programme. That is in front of this government." He admitted that it did not conform strictly to the Government's vision for BCIF, saying "It is different to what they thought because it engages the states...We took the two main regional markets that are most able to step up to this in a visionary way [Western Australia and Queensland] and made those proposals to the Federal Government."

There has been much speculation that the Government is about to award BCIF to the Optus-Elders joint venture (Opel Networks) and that it has drawn up a short list comprising this, AUSalliance and satellite service provider Australian Private Networks, a reseller of satellite services from Thai company IPStar.

However, Price said the official word he had received was that there was no shortlist and, other than that Axia has received no response form the Government on its proposal.

For the Alberta SuperNet, Axia has rolled out over 11,000kms of fibre and 3000kms of wireless access networks. The SuperNet does not rely on the incumbent's copper: it is either fibre to the premises or wireless. Axia provides services direct to government customers and wholesales access to third parties to serve private sector users.