Australia’s fixed line incumbent Telstra is expected to spend approximately AUD335 million (USD352 million) over the next three years on preparing its pit, pipes and conduits in preparation for the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN). CommsDay said the figure is based on three contracts which have been inked by Telstra for work on its infrastructure, the most recent of which was signed with Visionstream just a few days ago, under which the latter will undertake remediation work in Victoria and Tasmania for the incumbent; that deal was valued at around AUD90 million over its three-year duration.
Last month meanwhile Telstra signed a contract with for repair work in Queensland in a deal worth around AUD65 million, while that same month it confirmed that Service Stream would take responsibility for infrastructure work in New South Wales, the ACT, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory in a deal worth AUD180 million.
Commenting on the contracts, the report cited an unnamed Telstra spokesperson as saying: ‘All three companies have strong track records of performance with Telstra proven through their design and construction work in the Telstra network over many years. Volumes of work will depend on the government’s NBN roll-out program.’