Nextgen Networks, which bagged the $250-million Regional Backbone Blackspots Program tender in December 2009, intends using Alcatel-Lucent’s optical fibre infrastructure to run the regional broadband traffic of mainland Australia.

Alcatel-Lucent will provide optical switching and transmission equipment for the fibre optic links - along with its longhaul dense wave division multiplexing platform, and photonic and transport service switches - for the initiative which will connect blackspot areas to key centres. The move will witness the connectivity of six priority blackspots and 102 competitive backbone access points across regional Australia.

The initiative will span over 18 months, during which Nextgen will install 6,0000km of new fibre to serve nearly 395,000 people in over 60 regional towns - from Perth to Geraldton; Toowoomba to Darwin; Shepparton via Mildura to Adelaide; Mildura to Broken Hill; Sale to Wonthaggi; and Adelaide to Victor Harbour and Mount Barker.

Talking about the benefits of the backbone program, Stephen Conroy, the country’s Communications Minister, said that that the move will ensure that high-speed broadband reaches out to all homes, workplaces, and schools.

Noting that the regional links will provide new broadband and mobile services in blackspot areas, Alcatel-Lucent Australia managing director, Andrew Butterworth, said: “We have the technology ready and all the right people in place to get started straight away on this deployment, which is a great step forward for the government’s wider National Broadband Network.”