NBN turf war erupts between Victoria and Queensland

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 14 April 2009 12:12

Business IT - Technology

The Victorian government is putting forward a strong case to be the home of the National Broadband Network (NBN), following an earlier claim by Queensland. New South Wales has yet to put up its hand for consideration.

John Lenders, Victorian treasurer and minister for information and communication technology said "No other city in the nation has the telecommunications capability, such a skilled workforce ready to embark on a project like this and is in the ideal geographic location to become the centre of the project."

"We are already known as the nation's telecommunications hub with over a third of Australia's ICT industry based in Victoria – including many companies set to play a critical role in the rollout of the National Broadband Network."

The organisations Lenders was referring to presumably include Ericsson (which was behind Telstra's quick rollout of the Next G wireless network and is known to have an interest in FTTP rollouts) as well as Pacific Broadband Networks (a supplier of fibre optic transmission products that was explicitly mentioned by Lenders).

He also cited some of Victoria's research institutions.

"Centres such as the Photonics Research Laboratory at the University of Melbourne, the ARC Special Research Centre for Ultra-Broadband Information Networks (CUBIN) and the Victoria Research Laboratory of NICTA are world-leaders in optical fibre communications and fibre-to-the-home systems."

Lenders' position was backed by Professor Rob Evans, Victorian Director of NICTA.

Find out what Evans said on page two.