Calling for formal expressions of interest, HyperOne is looking for "experienced and innovative Australian companies" that can undertake various elements of the project and the full end-to-end scope of the design, construction and maintenance of the fibre network.
Reporting that "hundreds of inquiries" were received during the registrations for interest period earlier this year, HyperOne said it has " recently completed route planning and design" and that construction is scheduled to commence in late 2021.
Bevan Slattery (pictured) has said there is a preference for using local labour and content in each state.
“It is important to us that local communities across Australia are realising the economic benefits of this nation-building project to the maximum extent possible. We want this critical infrastructure built by Australia, for Australia,” Slattery said.
With more than 20,000km of highspeed cable, the nationwide high-speed optical fibre HyperOne network will connect every capital city and many regional centres across Australia, commanding investment of A$1.5 billion.
HyperOne will be capable of carrying more than 10,000 terabits per second – more traffic than every other national backbone built in Australia’s history combined.
Slattery said: “HyperOne will provide greater national resiliency, enable future industries such as space, cloud, satellite, new undersea cable landing points all around Australia.
“Our existing backbone networks are on average 20 years old and the newest network was built back in 2003. All the existing national backbone networks were designed and built for a different time - people were still using dial-up internet. The “Cloud”, the National Broadband Network, 3G, 4G or 5G hadn’t even been invented let alone contemplated.”
