Why Armidale took the NBN launch prize

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  • Townsville
    (Credit: NBN Co)

    Speaking before Senate Estimates last night, Quigley said that the company had not planned which of the first five release sites on the mainland would be finished first. NBN has started construction in Armidale, Townsville, Willunga, Brunswick and Kiama Downs. Until the disastrous Tropical Cyclone Yasi earlier this year, the poster site was set to be Townsville, he said.

    "We had five sites ... which were all progressing at different times of the construction. It looked like one or the other of them were going to finish first. Then different events happened. At the time the cyclone took place we thought Townsville would be finished first, that would be the first place we would turn customers on to," he said.

    "It turned out, with the cyclone, Armidale was then the most progressed. It became the logical place to connect first customers."

    Caption by: Josh Taylor

  • Kiama
    (Credit: NBN Co)

    According to the NBN Co chief, Kiama was also at one stage the front runner to take the prize.

    "At various times, maybe early on in the piece, for example, Kiama Downs looked like it was ahead but we hit very hard volcanic rock and we also had to put some backhaul through an area with swamp that ended up being environmentally sensitive," he said.

    When ZDNet Australia toured the Kiama site earlier this year, NBN Co said that the basalt rock encountered by NBN Co construction crews was a seven on a scale of 10 for rock hardness.

    Caption by: Josh Taylor

  • Brunswick
    (Credit: NBN Co)

    The inner-city roll-out site of Brunswick in Melbourne also lagged behind in the race when NBN Co discovered a few dangers in accessing existing ducts to install fibre.

    "Brunswick, we had some remediation issues with asbestos in the ducts ... which slowed the progress down in Brunswick," Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said.

    Caption by: Josh Taylor

  • Willunga
    (Credit: NBN Co)

    Conroy hinted that Senator Eric Abetz's line of questioning over the decision on which site was to be the first to finish came from the fact that Armidale, the poster site that went live in May, resides within the electorate of Independent MP Tony Windsor, whose vote the government needs to hold power.

    Conroy joked that the South Australian roll-out site of Willunga may have been first.

    "What you think we sent an order to Willunga, 'slow down, we want Armidale first'? Oh, they've caught us," Conroy joked.

    Caption by: Josh Taylor

  • Armidale
    (Credit: NBN Co)

    Ultimately, Armidale construction was the first to be completed and Quigley put the total cost of the launch in Armidale last month at approximately $140,000. The other five sites are expected to go live with test customers over the next few months, with commercial services tipped to start in September.

    Caption by: Josh Taylor

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Townsville, not Armidale was set to be the mainland launch site for the National Broadband Network (NBN), but when Tropical Cyclone Yasi hit, Armidale stepped up, according to NBN Co CEO Mike Quigley.

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Townsville
(Credit: NBN Co)

Speaking before Senate Estimates last night, Quigley said that the company had not planned which of the first five release sites on the mainland would be finished first. NBN has started construction in Armidale, Townsville, Willunga, Brunswick and Kiama Downs. Until the disastrous Tropical Cyclone Yasi earlier this year, the poster site was set to be Townsville, he said.

"We had five sites ... which were all progressing at different times of the construction. It looked like one or the other of them were going to finish first. Then different events happened. At the time the cyclone took place we thought Townsville would be finished first, that would be the first place we would turn customers on to," he said.

"It turned out, with the cyclone, Armidale was then the most progressed. It became the logical place to connect first customers."

Caption by: Josh Taylor

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