Nextgen Networks began construction on its broadband fibre network in 2001 with the plan of leasing the bandwidth to carriers and other service providers. However, in June this year the company appointed Jack Crumlin and Martin Madden of Ernst & Young as its Receivers and Managers.
The Nextgen fibre-optic network covers around 8,400 kilometres stretching from Perth to Brisbane via Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide and a number of regional population centres. It was constructed by Visionstream - a wholly-owned subsidiary of Leighton Contractors - which also had a 10 year contract to operate and maintain the network. Although the financial details are confidential, Leightons is believed to have offered only AU$30 million for the extensive network.
Leighton Contractors formed strategic alliances with non-profit supplier of bandwidth to research organisations, AARnet and the Nextgen Banking Syndicate. Under the deal with the banks Leighton will pay an upfront fee and the banks will share in network growth over the next 10 years.
"As part of the acquisition of Nextgen we have been able to create a significant alliance with AARnet," said Phil Cooper, the executive general manager of Leighton Contractors. "The agreement with AARnet to provide infrastructure for the provision of services to the higher education community is particularly important. The collaboration with AARnet will provide benefits for all telecommunications users, especially the education sector and the regional communities."
AARnet will use the NextGen network to establish a backbone and a series of Virtual Private Networks for metropolitan and regional universities to improve collaboration. The system is planned to come online in 2004 and provide tens of gigabits per second capacity across the country. The contract between Leighton and AARnet will run for 15 years.
Visionstream will undertake addition works worth approximately AU$100 million over the next five years.
