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Nokia Siemens upgrades Aurora backbone

Would-be NBN Tasmania joint-owner Aurora Energy has completed an upgrade to its own TasGovNet fibre-optic backbone, used to supply services to key towns in the state.
Written by Liam Tung, Contributing Writer

Would-be NBN Tasmania joint-owner Aurora Energy has completed an upgrade to its own TasGovNet fibre-optic backbone, used to supply services to key towns in the state.

The backbone connects the state's cities of Hobart, Launceston, Burnie and Davenport and is run as small but distinct managed services telecommunications unit within the utility. Nokia Siemens Networks has carried out an upgrade deploying dense wavelength division multiplexing technology to the network. The upgrade was to increase network capacity from hundreds of megabits per second to tens of gigabits per second.

Aurora Energy is also the state's key contractor for NBN Co subsidiary NBN Tasmania, headed up by Doug Campbell. The utility has been contracted to provide connections to households in the state under the Federal Government initiative. A joint-venture between NBN Co and Aurora was put on ice last year in order to make progress on the National Broadband Network.

The TasGovNet fibre network stands outside the state's NBN efforts.

The upgrade forms another component of recent efforts to fibre Tasmania. Last year the Basslink cable was lit up, providing a second undersea cable carrying traffic to the mainland.

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