melbourne broadband base ..........

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Melbourne broadband base
by ARI SHARP
November 15, 2009

MELBOURNE has been selected as the home for the technology team building the national broadband network.

The move will make the city a major focus of early development of the network.

The government-owned company established to build the $43 billion network, NBN Co, on the weekend advertised for general managers and more junior staff to fill roles in the technology division, which it said would be based in Melbourne.

The employees, expected to reach three figures, will be involved in assessing the technology requirements for the network and deciding on the ideal network architecture.

They will report to chief technology officer Gary McLaren.

While the move could potentially give the city an advantage in the battle with Sydney and Brisbane to host the network's headquarters, it could also weaken Melbourne's case, as chief executive Mike Quigley wants to decentralise the administration of the network across several cities.

A company spokesman said yesterday: ''NBN Co will be employing people in all states and territories and as such it does not have a head office in the traditional sense.''

When he gave evidence to a Senate committee last month, Mr Quigley, based in Sydney, said the decision on the headquarters would take into account where existing staff were based as well as discussions with the three state governments that were wooing the company. Even if scaled down, the headquarters will be a boon for the host city, with many of the 1000 to 3000 people to be employed by the network likely to be based there.

Friday's announcement that Mike Kaiser will take on the role of head of government relations and Claire Rawlins will be chief information officer brings to 10 the number of senior executives appointed to the network, which aims to bring broadband speeds of up to 100 megabits per second to 90 per cent of Australian homes and businesses.

Optus chief executive Paul O'Sullivan yesterday urged the company to ''get on with it'' and gave a strong indication that his company was willing to vend in its assets to the network.

''We need to stop the delay, we need to build this network now because of what it can offer Australia,'' Mr O'Sullivan told ABC TV's Inside Business yesterday.

''We've done a detailed costing and demand modelling exercise on the NBN. We've been one of the few parties willing to make that public and show how this can be a good investment.''

The Senate is due in the next fortnight to debate legislation to split Telstra's retail and wholesale operations, but Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce's commitment to support the proposal only if it is delayed until next year means the Government may need to wait until then for it to proceed.

Mr O'Sullivan urged the Parliament to pass the bill in the next two weeks.

Source: The Age
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