Transfield picked for Sydney NBN construction

Transfield Services will be responsible for rolling out National Broadband Network (NBN) fibre in Sydney metropolitan and suburban areas under a two-year contract worth up to AU$170 million.

The company will work alongside the Siemens company Silcar in constructing the fibre network across New South Wales, in addition to Transfield's existing contract for Victoria.

The contract has two one-year options for renewal.

Last week, NBN Co itself took on responsibility for construction of the NBN in the Northern Territory, taking over from Syntheo, which will continue to roll out the NBN in Western Australia and South Australia.

The company also announced that construction of the network has fallen three months behind schedule, due to contractors not putting enough workers in the field as quickly as required by NBN Co. The target of 341,000 premises passed by fibre by the end of June was revised down to anywhere between 190,000 and 220,000.

NBN Co CEO Mike Quigley said the company will be working closely with the construction companies to ensure that the new targets are met and the backlog is quickly made up. For example, NBN Co will be deploying a team of fibre splicers out in the field into areas where there has been difficulty in getting enough fibre splicers.