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FIBRE optic deployment specialist H2O has set up shop in Australia and is betting on its sewer cable-laying methods to position the company for a piece of the government's $43 billion national broadband network pie. The British-headquartered company has set up a local presence in Brisbane with a view to edging in on the NBN project by offering its services to deploy high-speed fibre optic cable via Australia's sewer systems. The patented method, which H20 calls Fibre Optical Cable Underground Sewer System (FS), can be between 60 per cent to 75 per cent cheaper to deploy than traditional fibre rollouts, H2O Australia executive director Andrew Lawson said. "At this moment in time we are confident that our sewer deployment technology will substantially reduce costs and we think it will receive a positive reception in Australia," Mr Lawson said. "We don't know the specific cost savings in Australia yet, but in the UK the time savings and the cost savings compared to the traditional dig and trench methods is in the region of 65 per cent to 75 per cent." H2O has already used its sewer cabling method to roll out fibre-to-the-premise networks in Bournemouth and Dundee in Britain and are in the middle of similar projects in South Africa. Mr Lawson said the FS system was proving a popular cabling method in its British and South African rollouts because it could be done in a fast and cost-effective way without the high costs and disruption caused by traditional cabling methods. The method also allows network builders to avoid the complex negotiations needed to gain permission to dig up roads and pavements which often encumber NBN-like projects. Mr Lawson was coy about the exact role H20 would like to play in the NBN but said the company had a number of discussions lined up with corporate and government bodies involved in the design. "At the moment it's a bit premature to talk about our role in the NBN because no one is completely certain what shape the NBN is going to take yet," he said. "We will be speaking to potential commercial and governmental partners over the next couple of months and from the outcome of those conversations we will determine the commercial route we will go down." Mr Lawson said H2O's involvement in the NBN would be down one of two paths: "We will either install ourselves or we can license our technology to other builders involved in the NBN," he said. Post a comment in response: |
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