Regional Backbone Blackspot eradication timetable revealed

Stuart Corner
Friday, 24 September 2010 16:46

Business IT - Networking

Nextgen Networks, the company contracted to build new fibre links to regional centres where there is no competitive backhaul, has published a timetable showing when individual towns will get access to its network.

The company has provided on its website a list of towns  to be served under the programme along with target availability dates.

It says that, for wholesale customers seeking to interconnect to the network, "we will be providing actual detailed point of interconnect address locations as they are progressively confirmed. These will commence being posted on the Nextgen web site within a fortnight."

Communications minister, senator Stephen Conroy announced the $250m Regional Backbone Blackspots programme in April 2009. In December 2009 Nextgen Networks won the Federal Government's tender to provide the optical fibre links for these blackspots in December 2009, in part on the strength of its promise to serve smaller centres along the routes of the 6000kms of new cables required to serve the regional centres identified in the tender.

In January 2010 Nextgen named Alcatel-Lucent as the supplier of the optical switching and transmission equipment for the network.