NBN Co fires starting gun for network vendors

GPON suppliers, resellers and integrators welcome.

Federal Government-funded National Broadband Network company (NBN Co) has requested networking equipment vendors and network integrators provide it a statement of their capabilities in preparation for the build out of a $43 billion fibre-to-the-home (FttH) national network.

The company posted an advertisement in The Weekend Australian on Saturday December 5, to inform networking providers that it would be releasing a Request for Capability Statement by 5pm Monday December 7.

Companies can register for interest here.

"We want to receive Capability Statements from experienced suppliers of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) and related active equipment to support the deployment of a point-to-point and gigabit passive optical (GPON) network," the company's advert said.

NBN Co said the request from networking companies would be the first of several it will seek "so [it] can fairly select the right partners."

The process is open to both vendors, resellers, integrators and even the humble construction company.

A spokesman for NBN Co told CRN that the Request for Capability Statement process allows NBN Co to "objectively look at the capabilities of suppliers before a final Request for Proposal (RFP) process."

Interested parties are likely to include Swedish vendor Ericsson, Japanese manufacturer NEC and Chinese vendor Huawei.

Alcatel-Lucent will also have a good showing with NBN Co CEO Mike Quigley and CFO Jean-Pascal Beaufret both former executives from the company.

Networking providers have only until 5pm on Monday December 21 to write and submit an electronic response to NBN Co's request.