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WAS NEXTGEN USING NEWSAT SATELITE TECHNOLOGY ?


UPDATE 4.09pm: OPTUS and Nextgen Networks are vying to build the first stage of Australia's $43 billion National Broadband Network.

Singapore Telecommunications-owned Optus and Leighton Holdings-owned Nextgen Networks have both submitted bids to for all six locations in the first round of regional tenders for the NBN.

The six priority locations under the Regional Backbone Blackspots Program are Emerald and Longreach, Geraldton, Darwin, Broken Hill, Victor Harbor and southwest Gippsland.

Other bids were filed for individual locations before Wednesday's deadline.

Optus said today the program is a "critical first step in enabling the NBN build".

"The bids would see Optus build and then operate the new backhaul network for a period of at least five years on behalf of the government," Optus said in a statement.

Construction is to begin in September, and Nextgen managing director Phil Sykes says his company, which owns and operates Australia's third-largest fibre optic network, has its bid fully contracted and ready to go.

"We are offering a single unified network right across all those blackspots, all tied together with our existing core network, so it is a single solution for government," Mr Sykes told AAP.

"We are leveraging our existing assets and putting in some substantial additional fibre in all those locations with an eye to the future as well, being able to support the future vision of the NBN which will take fibre out to the homes."

The federal government is spending $43 billion to build and operate the network to deliver broadband services of up to 100 megabits per second - 100 times faster than current speeds.

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has publicly opposed the technology, accusing the government of pushing a network on to the public without knowing it would be profitable.

The government will maintain 51 per cent ownership in the NBN but is open to considering a range of ownership structures for the network, including a direct ownership by current Telstra Ltd shareholders if the telco giant splits its wholesale and retail businesses.

Optus has called for Telstra to be split, claiming the NBN will only be commercially viable if this is done.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has acknowledged that a demerger and structural separation of Telstra would result in the NBN being built faster and cheaper than if Telstra's existing network stood alone.

But Optus and Nextgen had significant networks that could also be partners to the NBN, Mr Conroy said recently.