NBN Co adds more fibre to its roll-out personnelDAN OAKES December 16, 2009 THE company charged with creating the Federal Government's $43 billion national broadband network has found the person it hopes will oversee the building of the network's infrastructure.
The national broadband network company (NBN Co) will announce as early as today that it has hired Patrick Flannigan to oversee the roll-out of the fibre and other network components.
Mr Flannigan is a former chief executive of telecommunications engineering group Service Stream and a former general manager of Skilled Engineering, both companies that would expect to be involved in the building of the network.
Service Stream offers a wide suite of services, including equipment installation, fault identification, cable hauling, duct and trench digging, liaising with local councils and the wireless tower erection, all of which will be crucial in the building of the national broadband network.
Although the company has a large workforce of its own, it also supplies subcontractors and other outsourced staff.
While Mr Flannigan resigned from Service Stream in July, at the same time describing the company's 2009 financial results as ''very disappointing'', industry sources say he is highly regarded and suited to the new job.
The hiring comes as NBN Co negotiates with Telstra over how Telstra's physical network will interact with the NBN. There has been fevered, and often baseless, speculation about the status of the negotiations, but the NBN is likely to be rolled out using at least some of Telstra's infrastructure.
Service Stream is tightly bound to Telstra, which provides the bulk of its business, and in 2007 signed a $1.2 billion contract with the telco for fixed-network maintenance.
Although new Service Stream chief executive Michael Doery cautioned in September that the company should not pin its short-term hopes on the NBN, any deal between Telstra and NBN Co would leave it in a strong position to play a pivotal role in building the NBN.
It is also believed that NBN Co has hired two former Telstra public relations staffers, Rhonda Griffin and Jane Sullivan, to fill communications roles. Ms Sullivan left Telstra in 2005, while Ms Griffin left early this year and has worked recently for NSW RailCorp.
A personalised tool to help users track selected stocks. Delivering real-time notifications on price updates, announcements, and performance stats on each to help make informed investment decisions.
(20min delay)