Ventia, Service Stream, Fulton Hogan Utilities and Downer EDI picked for NBN upgrades

NBN Co has awarded contracts to Ventia, Service Stream, Fulton Hogan Utilities and Downer EDI to execute its planned upgrade. 

The partners will take part in the upgrade of the National Broadband Network of a further  one million locations from a fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) network to fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) connections, which falls under the federal government’s $2.4 billion investment in the network. 

Ventia and Service Stream will undertake deployment and construction work in NSW, Victoria and Queensland, with the former also taking on Tasmania. 

Fulton Hogan Utilities will handle Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. Downer EDI, meanwhile, will handle NSW and WA. 

“To date, our delivery partners have laid the foundation for NBN full fibre customer connections, with more than 30,000 kilometres of fibre optic cable hauled into suburbs and townships across Australia,” said Kathrine Dyer, chief operating officer at NBN Co. 

“By pushing fibre deeper into communities, we are further supporting the tremendous benefits that the NBN network brings through online education, tele-health services, the ability to work from home, experience great gaming and streaming, connect more smart devices for added convenience, all the while strengthening social inclusion for those who need it most.” 

In 2021, Ventia, Downer Group, Lendlease Service and Fulton Hogan Utilities were awarded contracts with a total value of $1.1 billion to partake in the FTTN upgrade.

In March 2022, NBN Co announced the first 50,000 customers served by FTTN had become eligible to upgrade to FTTP.  

Meanwhile, in an update from February this year, the NBN builder said three million FTTN connections are expected to be upgraded to FTTP by the end of 2025.