Wednesday, 9 August 2000
Nextgen Networks today announced that it will develop an $850 million national optic fibre network of approximately 8400 km in length extending from Brisbane to Perth via Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide.
Nextgen Networks is a business venture between Leighton Contractors and Macquarie Bank. Lucent Technologies will be the supplier of technology and services.
Nextgen, will be Australia's first true independent, wholesale high bandwidth network owner and operator. Lucent Technologies will provide the next generation of optic fibre technology which will be introduced for the first time into the Australian market and will also supply operations and maintenance support once the network has been completed. The network will provide cost competitive, high quality bandwidth services to domestic and international telecommunications carriers, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), major corporates and government users.
The project will be financed by debt and equity. Project debt has been underwritten by Deutsche Bank. It is intended that debt will be syndicated to a group of local and overseas banks by year end. Macquarie Bank, Nextgen's financial advisor, is well advanced with the placement of Nextgen's equity with local and overseas institutions.
"This is a landmark financing in the local telecommunications sector and has been underpinned by the calibre and strength of the consortium," said Mel Woods, Director, Macquarie Bank.
Nextgen's optic fibre network will provide many regional centres, particularly in New South Wales and Victoria, with access to a range of telecommunications services previously only available in capital cities. Nextgen Networks also expects to create more than 1000 new jobs in the design and construction period along with 250 jobs going forward in the operating phase. Many of these jobs will be created in regional centres, following completion of the network construction.
"The development of this comprehensive infrastructure, due in part to the rapid growth in inter-capital bandwidth requirements, enables Nextgen to offer telecommunications carriers, major corporates and government users access to wideband capacity in the capital cities and at regional locations along the route. As a result, they will be able to provide a greater number of services to both urban and regional users. This will help to break down the technology divide between the city and the bush," said Phil Pryke, Managing Director, Lucent Technologies Australia and New Zealand.
Research commissioned by Nextgen and undertaken by industry experts Ovum and KPMG, has estimated that market demand for bandwidth in Australia is growing at 40% per year.
"Nextgen will be a secure, reliable, high quality service backed by customised service assurance and guarantees. The technology is quickly scalable and this provides certainty for future growth," said Phil Cooper, Executive Director, Leighton Contractors.
The urban network will be deployed using new and existing infrastructure, with regional rollout to access road, rail corridors and private property. The optic fibre cable is not intrusive and is just 15mm in diameter. Where possible, Nextgen will seek to build the network alongside existing transport corridors to reduce environmental impacts and provide greater network protection.
One of Nextgen's key objectives in delivering this project is to work closely with state and local governments and community groups to manage environmental and access issues through the development of the network.
Further information can be obtained from:
Ashley Mason, Leighton Holdings 61 2 9925 6027, mobile 0412 550 098
Matthew Russell, Macquarie Bank 61 2 8232 4102, mobile 0410 699 532
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The Nextgen Network
Nextgen will provide a range of broadband capacity products on a regional, inter-capital and international basis.
The target market for this service includes licensed telecommunications carriers, Internet Service Providers, international carriers who land submarine cables in Perth and Sydney and large companies and government users who require dedicated networks between capital cities.
Nextgen Technology
Nextgen will develop the network using Non-Zero Dispersion Shifted Fibre (NZDSF) along with Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) equipment and digital cross-connects. The initial capacity of the network will be 400Gbit/s. The ultimate capacity after upgrades will be in multiples of Terabits (4 Tbit/s+ is possible). This combination of technologies will be introduced for the first time into the Australian domestic market. It is the preferred choice of recent long distance carriers in the USA and Europe and of international cable consortia.
The technology is already in use by carriers such as AT&T, British Telecom, Global Crossing, NTT of Japan, Time Warner Telecom and WinStar. Lucent has entered into recent agreements, which include contracts with carriers in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, China, and Korea.
Network Deployment
The Sydney to Melbourne part of the network is expected to be completed by the second quarter 2002, with the Sydney to Brisbane and Melbourne to Adelaide links to follow in the next quarter. The final Adelaide to Perth link is scheduled for completion in early 2003.
The rollout of the network will be undertaken by Leighton Contractors' subsidiary, Visionstream Pty Ltd. Lucent Technologies will provide the network engineering, through its professional services division, Network Care, as well as supplying the optic-fibre cable and transmission equipment.
Leighton was responsible for the deployment of 7,600 km of optic fibre cable links throughout Australia for the Optus telecommunications network. Visionstream has had similar responsibilities for the rollout of the Telstra HFC broadband network which passed 2 million homes across Australia.
Visionstream and Lucent are currently deploying a 1800 km network for Reef Networks Pty Ltd from Brisbane to Cairns.
The experience & the combined strengths of Visionstream, Lucent & Leighton, will provide the core competencies required for the network build for Nextgen.
Operations And Maintenance
Visionstream and Lucent will align their respective skills and resources to operate and maintain the network on behalf of Nextgen.
Lucent will provide the network operations capability through their Asia Pacific Network Operations Centre (NOC) based in Sydney. This centre is one of the most advanced integrated voice and data networks operations management facilities in the world. It is designed to manage a wide range of technical and network management services for customers including solutions for remote management and support of voice and data networking. The NOC provides around-the-clock professional services and communications network support for customers in the Asia Pacific region.
Visionstream with its significant geographic coverage through its engineering resources and workforce will provide day-to-day field support to the operating network.
The combination of Lucent and Visionstream will provide a high level of service for Nextgen's operational requirements and its customers.
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