The National Broadband Network Company has selected vendor Alcatel-Lucent as a key supplier of network and Ethernet equipment in a $15 million deal, it announced in a statement yesterday.
It comes after a group of 21 companies were announced as preferred bidders for contract work for the NBN, cut down from a list of 45 due to the NBN’s admitted focus on larger infrastructure providers.
Alcatel will supply both GPON and Ethernet aggregation equipment. The GPON technology comprises of a gadget connected to a home, which allows the company to split a fibre connection into several different strands, each used for telephone, television and internet lines, among other uses.
NBN Co. head of corporate services, Kevin Brown, said in a statement that Alcatel will also provide the NBN with engineering and testing services over the next 12 months.
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“Entering into this key contract enables NBNCo to deliver a world-class, fibre-based, high-speed network for Australia, starting with our first release sites,” he said.
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Brown also said that the NBN Co. has committed $70 million for an initial fixed price purchase, with an additional option to purchase as much equipment as the company needs as the project grows larger.
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He also mentioned that once NBN Co. achieves “full rollout scale”, it intends to engage other equipment providers who will operate alongside the GPON equipment provided by Alcatel.
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“The contract with Alcatel-Lucent allows NBN Co. to purchase what it needs when it needs it, and allows NBN Co. to engage other suppliers at a later date of our choosing,” he said.
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While the equipment is manufactured overseas, he said, all testing will occur in Australia and will require the work of 500 Alcatel engineers and 200 NBN Co. engineers.
NBN chief executive Mike Quigley was a former executive at Alcatel, but the company claimed in the statement his previous position had no bearing on the new contract.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
