Broadspectrum (formerly Transfield Services) has signed an eight- year contract with Chorus for the rollout of the Ultra Fast Broadband Extension (UFB2).
Broadspectrum says that, starting in mid-2017, it will manage the design and construction of the fibre optic network to more than 145,000 premises in 155 towns nationally.
The CEO of Broadspectrum Urban Infrastructure, Sandra Dodds, said the contract would build on the strong relationship the company had with Chorus. “We will draw on our experience building the UFB1 network with Chorus over the past five years to ensure the rollout is efficient,” she said.
The company said also that it would draw on its telecommunications expertise, including that gained from a four-year contract rolling out Australian’s National Broadband Network and work with Powerco in New Zealand to design and build a private mobile radio network.
Broadspectrum has an ongoing contract with Chorus. In 2009, as Transfield Services, it was awarded a 10 year, $1b contract to provide telecommunications field services to Chorus.
That relationship has not always been smooth. In September 2013 Chorus issued a statement saying: “Chorus welcomes assurances from Transfield that it is urgently addressing late payment issues to its subcontractors, and is seeking assurance that there will be no repeat of this issue.”
Despite this Chorus entered into a new agreement for UFB rollout with Transfield in December 2014.
In September 2015, according to a report in the Australian newspaper, Transfield Services was forced by its parent company, Transfield Holdings, to change its name to dissociated from its parent because of its controversial role providing services to the Australian Government at asylum-seeker processing centres in Nauru and Manus Island.
Broadspectrum at the time was the name used by a Transfield subsidiary that provided services to the resources, energy and construction industries.
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