Fibre-optic network backbone begins in Australia

The Australian government is a week away from seeing the first sod of soil turned in the construction of fiber-optic backbone links for its ambitious $43 billion national broadband network.

Mount Isa in northwest Queensland will be the first site in mainland Australia to have fiber-optic lines laid as part of the government's $250 million regional backbone blackspots program. The program seeks to alleviate the strangled state of broadband competition in rural regions ahead of the construction of the NBN in metropolitan areas. Leighton Holdings' Nextgen Networks was awarded the lucrative contract to dig the trenches and lay fiber for the links in December last year. Mount Isa falls on one of six fiber-optic backbone links that will be built to connect 100 regional towns around the nation to the high-speed broadband network.