'It's a spaghetti junction down there': NBN comes to the Perth CBD
A contractor shimmies his way out of a manhole on Goderich Street in East Perth where he and his colleagues are working to connect scores of apartments to the National Broadband Network.
"It's a spaghetti juntion down there - and this is just a residential street. Wait till we hit St Georges Terrace. That's going to be fun."
This street is one of the first in central Perth to be connected to the NBN, and work crews are now steadily fanning out across the CBD to make every building "ready to connect", with 13,500 premises in and around the centre including parts of East Perth and Northbridge to be done.
It's a big task, and some of the contractors in the crew WAtoday saw in action on Goderich Street recently worked on the highly complex Sydney Light Rail project.
The network is being built in Perth's suburbs with regional infrastructure mostly completed throughout WA. NBN Co's WA manager Jane McNamara said the Perth CBD build should take six to nine months to complete, and represents one of the network's bigger tasks.
"We’re connecting buildings all over the city, from the small bars along Wolf Lane to huge office towers on St Georges Terrace, and every one of those buildings is different," she said.
"In some cases there can be months of detailed design, planning and negotiation with multiple stakeholders – including the City of Perth and major utilities such as Main Roads before any actual construction work can begin.
"While in other cases, the build itself that can present challenges with so many people working in and passing through the CBD each day.
"People should visit the NBN website to check their individual address to find out when they can order a plan."
Business opens up
The CBD is already criss-crossed with fibre connections for major buildings, and most large businesses and organisations have their net infrastructure sorted privately or by network providers such as Optus.
Brodie McCulloch - founder and managing director of the co-working group and start-up incubator Spacecubed - said the NBN will be another option for net connection for larger companies and buildings, who may use it as a back up or even switch to a business service offered through it.
But he said the main business beneficiaries of the NBN in the city will be smaller enterprises, such as the scores of tech start-ups concentrated in the CBD.
"For Spacecubed, which has hundreds of members and businesses using our spaces daily, we have multiple enterprise 800mb fiber connections to ensure there is always high-speed access to the internet," he said.
"For residential or small businesses setting up in the CBD, the NBN will provide access to 20mb - 100mb connections that otherwise wouldn't have been possible in the past for a reasonable price, which can only be good for enabling business."
Ms McNamara said businesses in Perth will be able to use the NBN to support their work and growth.
"NBN Co has a dedicated full service, business sales and support operation that focuses on delivering the wholesale infrastructure businesses need to succeed in a digital economy as well as providing the levels of service they require.
"In the past year, we have significantly scaled the size and scope of this team and worked alongside industry to set up processes to better meet the business community’s demands for high-quality service."