NBN Co's FTTP tender: suppliers will have one month to respond

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 08 December 2009 03:12

IT Industry - Tenders

NBN Co has revealed details of its planned acquisition timetable for the key FTTH components of the National Broadband Network, saying it will give organisation invited to tender just one month to respond.

The NBN Co has issued a request for capability statements from potential FTTP suppliers and says it will use the capability statements to short list candidate suppliers for participation in a RFP process in which it expects to invite 5 - 10 candidates to participate.

NBN Co's "indicative" timetable requires receipt of capability statements by 21 December. It expects to start briefing short-listed candidates by 3 February and to issue its RFP on 15 February, with the deadline for receipt of proposals on 15 March.

The NBN Co is requesting capability statements from potential suppliers of gigabit passive optical network (GPON) and point-to-point ethernet technology deployment, including: optical network terminals (ONTs); VDSL2 (for fibre to the building installations); ethernet end-user premises equipment for terminating wholesale services; optical line terminals (OLTs), both GPON and point-to-point ethernet; ethernet switches and ethernet aggregation switches; transport platform equipment (wavelength division multiplexer, microwave, etc. At this stage it is not seeking responses from suppliers of optical fibre cables.

The document confirms NBN Co's plans to build only a layer 2 network. It says that responses "should specifically recognise and address the special technical requirements of NBN Co's network including: support for a wholesale open access layer 2 network model capable of servicing and maintaining separation between multiple retail service providers to each end user."