TelstraClear to build $NZ43m 10Gbps NZ research network

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 20 April 2006 19:20

Business IT - Networking

TelstraClear has signed a contract with Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand (REANNZ) to build a high speed network linking the country's research and educational institutions to each other and to their peers in over 40 countries with the aid of a $NZ43 million Government grant spread over four years.
TelstraClear will lay fibre from its national fibre network to a series PoPs throughout the country. Education and research institutes will then connect to the PoPs through an access provider. The network will have a dedicated 10Gbps wavelength on TelstraClear's core optical backbone network, providing a separate network from TelstraClear's commercial network.

TelstraClear will install the 10Gbps optical transmission network and the REANNZ routers and switches. TelstraClear subsidiary, Sytec, will provide first level help desk and network management services, backed up by REANNZ and TelstraClear technical teams.

TelstraClear CEO, Allan Freeth, said: "Work has already begun on the first part of the network - linking Dunedin to Invercargill, via Invermay, where AgResearch and Crop & Food are located...TelstraClear will now start rolling the network out across the rest of the country."

He said the network build would be completed by the end of 2006, with some sections coming online earlier to coincide with major research projects.

Organisations to be linked first to the network include the University of Auckland, University of Otago, Lincoln University, University of Canterbury, Massey University, Waikato Innovation Park, HortResearch, AgResearch, Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, Hawkes Bay Research Centre and Scion (New Zealand Forest Research Institute).

REANNZ is a Crown entity with the Ministers of Research Science and Technology and of Finance as shareholders.