NBN Co picks Transfield for Victoria FTTH rollout

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 06 September 2011 11:51

IT Industry - Deals

NBN Co has signed an agreement valued at $133m for the large-scale deployment of the NBN in Victoria with Transfield Services.

Like the contract with Syntheo, the Lend Lease/Service Stream joint venture, for Western Australia, announced by Service Stream earlier today,  it  covers fibre design and construction activities for an initial period of two years, with options to extend for two further years.

NBN Co said the two contracts would "spur the rollout of another six of the 19 second release sites previously announced by NBN Co, being new sites in Geraldton, Victoria Park and Mandurah, Western Australia, and in Bacchus Marsh and South Morang, Victoria, as well as the extensions to the existing site in Brunswick."

Work will be undertaken on a rolling schedule with work at the first site, Geraldton, starting next month. Work in all sites except Brunswick will start by the end of 2011 and Brunswick in March 2012.

The value of the initial agreement with Transfield is approximately $133m, with a potential value of up to $395m if extended by two further years. The value of the initial agreement with Syntheo is approximately $174 million, with a potential value of up to $484 million if extended by two further years.  Both agreements are subject to NBN Co board approval.

Today's announcements follow the agreement of terms with Silcar in June to begin rolling out the NBN in Queensland, New South Wales and the ACT (after NBN Co's initial tender process had collapsed).

 The two new contracts bring to approximately 60 percent the total of NBN construction activity over the next two years that has been allocated to contractors.