Canberra telco and pay TV provider, TransACT, will serve fibre broadband to 11,000 ACT residents after the completion of fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) deployments to two greenfield estates.
The fibre roll outs to North Forde and Springbank Rise build on a previous deal with the ACT Land Development Agency to provide fibre-to-the-premises services to residents in medium density units.
The telco provides fibre services to ACT greenfield estates in Forde, Franklin, Bonner, Crace and the Flemington Road corridor.
TransACT and other fibre providers could receive more work if the Federal Government's push to force all greenfield estates to connect with fibre only is successful. Under the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Fibre Deployment) Bill 2010, introduced into Parliament on 18 March, copper connections to greenfield sites would be banned without ministerial consent.
The Bill will insert a new Part 20A into the Telecommunications Act 1997, allowing the communications minister to specify which types of real estate developments will require optical fibre. The clause in the bill requiring sign-off on the use of copper in new estates could be seen as preventing Telstra from undercutting access prices to the National Broadband Network with cheap copper offerings like ADSL.
Several housing developers previously said FTTP had been built into real estates for a decade, and that most organisations would side with the government's mandate. A small Sydney-based developer said organisations that have shirked FTTP deployments will likely oppose the proposal on the grounds of cost.