Fujitsu Australia is NBN Co’s “prime alliance partner” it said today.
The ICT giant and construction partner ServiceStream, will provide managed services including network design, construction and installation works in new housing developments.
The duo will work alongside working NBN Co’s operations team.
“Fujitsu has the capacity and scale of operations to meet NBN Co’s unique requirement for the deployment of fibre to a large number of discrete locations across the country simultaneously,” NBN Co CEO Mike Quigley said today.
The latest agreement, tipped earlier this month, described by Quigley as a “key milestone ” is worth $100 million a year to Fujitsu and comes after much protracted talks with other construction companies bidding for work including Telstra, which were halted following accusations of price gouging.
Read Plan B: Fujitsu & Optus Cut NBN Deals here
The national broadband network is set to cost $36billion to complete, at current estimates.
Since January 1, the new broadband provider has received more than 1,480 applications from housing developers, meaning 133,000 premises are to be connected to the fibre network across the nation.
However, the fibre deployment will be spread over a period of up to three years, “due to different construction timeframes and housing demand,” NBN Co also revealed.
“We are proud to be part of one of the biggest infrastructure projects ever undertaken in Australia, bringing digital services to the nation,” said Mike Foster, CEO of Fujitsu.
The awarding of this contract followed what was described “an extensive procurement process that started with requests for tenders in December 2010.”
And with one major milestone out of the way, the government and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy are trying to achieve another – to speed up the signing of the deal with Telstra to transfer its copper fibre network and give access to its infrastructure over to the NBN Co.
Federal budget papers released this week reveal the government could be set to give carrots to the telco to sweeten it up ahead of the $11bn deal sign off, by providing financial backing and guarantees.
“The government is considering the provision of financial support arrangements to facilitate the finalisation of the agreements,” the budget papers state.
