Two-thirds of local fibre to be buried: Quigley

James Riley
Wednesday, 20 October 2010 16:30

IT Policy - Regulation

At least two-thirds of the National Broadband Network's optical fibre cable in local areas would be deployed underground rather than strung overhead on power poles, NBN Company chief executive Mike Quigley has told a Senate committee.

And the NBN Co is looking at options for salvaging the copper wiring it replaces, although Mr Quigley says this is primarily an issue for Telstra, which owns the copper network.

Under questioning from West Australian Greens senator Scott Ludlam in an estimates hearing last night, Mr Quigley said that if a definitive deal between NBN Co and Telstra is reached, he expects two thirds of the local network to be buried.

"I can tell you overall, in terms of our planning, we expect around -assuming we consummate the financial heads of agreement we signed with Telstra into a definitive agreement - around two thirds of what we call local fibre (will be underground,)" Mr Quigley said.

"When we come out from a fibre access node, all of that will be underground, because it will be larger cable and we want that to be underground in ducts," he said.

"When it comes down the street, in some cases there isn't duct available, and that's why we're signing facilities access agreements with utility companies to do some of that aerial."

Mr Quigley said NBN Co would be doing some of its own local fibre trenching, and that lack of ducting did not automatically mean the cables would be strung aerially. He said the first release site in Willunga in South Australia was being trenched locally for nearly the whole site.

On reclaiming copper, Senator Ludlam said there was collectively across Australia probably "hundreds, if not thousands" of tons of copper cabling in the ground making up the Telstra customer access network (CAN.)

Mr Quigley said the salvage value of the single twisted pairs to homes was not that great, but that it was at this stage a matter for Telstra as the owner of the copper.

But as the NBN Co works through rollout issues ahead of the volume deployment of fibre it may be that it pulls some of the wires by default.

"It may also be that we could use the copper as a lead to pull the fibre through, particularly in conduits that are going to homes," Mr Quigley said.

"So we may do that. That is one of the migration scenarios and details that we are working through with Telstra," he said.