NBN Co Achieves 2012 Goal of Construction in Progress for 758,000 Premises

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - NBN Co, Australia's national open access communications network that is being built to bring high speed broadband and telephone services within the reach of all Australian premises, slightly exceeded its target to have construction commenced or completed in areas covering 758,000 premises before the end of 2012. The total number of premises in areas where construction had commenced or completed was 784,592 by year end.

The government’s objective is for NBN Co to rollout fiber optic broadband, designed to offer its retail service provider customers wholesale download speeds of up to 100 Mbps, to 93 percent of Australian premises by June 2021.

Announcing the milestone, NBN Co CEO Mike Quigley thanked staff, contractors and suppliers: “The National Broadband Network is an ambitious project which requires the efforts of many people working cooperatively towards a common goal. To have achieved our year-end target is both pleasing for all involved and a clear indication that the NBN project is ramping up to full volume rollout.

“By working together to achieve this year-end outcome the combined project team has established the settings to reach the peak rollout target of passing over 6000 premises a day by 2015,” Mr Quigley said. "We look forward to working closely with these construction partners to achieve our end June 2013 target of 286,000 premises passed."

To date, NBN Co has contracted with four construction companies to build the local network through the streets:

• Silcar - NSW, Queensland and the ACT


• Visionstream - Tasmania


• Transfield – Victoria; and


• Syntheo (a Lend Lease/Service Stream joint venture) – Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia.