The Australian Government has said it will provide up to $A4.7 billion to establish the National Broadband Network (NBN). The Government will also consider necessary regulatory changes to facilitate the rollout of a new open-access, high-speed, broadband network, providing downlink speeds of at least twelve megabits per second to 98 per cent of Australian homes and businesses.

With an estimated 20,000 homes to be connected weekly, there will be a range of techniques used to connect the network. Possible installation methods include:

  • Overhead (with existing services)
  • Trenching and micro-trenching
  • Use of other utility ducting
  • Use of wastewater infrastructure
  • Boring/drilling.

The ASTT is advocating on behalf of the industry, explaining the many benefits of the trenchless option, such as reducing damage to business and residential property, lower carbon emissions, reduced reinstatement costs, and the protection of sensitive environments such as the coast, rivers and creeks.

Trenchless Technology such as horizontal directional drilling (HDD) should be recognised and endorsed by the Senate Select Committee on the National Broadband Network as the most appropriate installation techniques in many circumstances.

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Communications consulting firm Alcatel-Lucent Australia has said “We believe that the Government should publish guidelines that will inform consumers about their choices: whether to commission their own installation in advance, what the required standards are, how to choose an appropriate contractor, and what is the minimum installation standard they can expect if no action is proactively taken before the NBN installation team arrives. Ideally, every house should be surveyed prior to installation and the owner informed on how connection would be made by default.”

Latest developments on the Apple Isle Abigroup Contractors and Apache Services have formed a joint venture to deliver Tasmania’s telecommunications infrastructure, to install a fibre optic cable between Bellerive and Howrah in Hobart, using a combination of trenching and HDD.

The project was already planned before the NBN proposal and involves the construction of a five kilometre conduit path, through which an optical fibre cable will be hauled from Aurora Energy’s telecommunications joint pit in Bellerive to the Howrah Telstra Exchange. The cable will then be extended to the South Arm Highway.

The path will be established using a combination of conventional trenching and HDD.