Tasmania completes NBN design

Aurora Energy has gone to market for equipment to link up the fibre cables to be used for Tasmania's leg of the National Broadband Network.

The state-owned partner to the Tasmanian NBN Co, which has taken on an implementation role for the deployment of the network, has issued another tender for the Tasmanian deployment and claims the design of its leg of the network has now been completed.

It issued its second tender today, this time for termination systems or connectors that link pre-determined lengths of fibre cable. Previously it had ordered thousands of kilometres of fibre, much of it for deployment on overhead cables.

The tender reveals that Aurora plans to join lengths of fibre cable together on the factory floor rather splicing fibre in the field.

The state's target under the project is to reach around 200,000 homes by 2014, with the early deployment to be closely watched by the mainland NBN Company and its chief Mike Quigley.

Tasmanian NBN Co, according to The Australian, has already taken receipt of a special trenching machine from France, which is expected to accelerate the cable laying process. Minister for Communications Stephen Conroy last month said trench-digging would begin in October.

Still to be ordered by Tasmania NBN Co and Aurora are the optical network terminals (ONT), which connect phone, internet and television services to the premises. At a media briefing last week, Quigley said the broader Australian roll-out would see ONTs with battery backup being used for the units.