NBN headquarters could be distributed between cities

NBN Co chair suggests HQ could be dispersed among major cities bidding for the role

An indication that the headquartering functions for the National Broadband Network (NBN) could be distributed between vying major cities has been welcomed by industry representatives.

Robert Schwarten, ICT Minister for Queensland, told The Australian that NBN Co chairman Michael Quigley had suggested the various roles of the NBN headquarters could be dispersed among the major cities bidding for the role.

Ian Birks, Australian Information Industry Association chief, said that a distributed model would share the benefits of managing the $43 billion infrastructure project and could harness the strengths of each capital’s bid.

“Most large corporations work very effectively across multiple locations, so it’s not a major stumbling block in terms of practicality - it’s more where they can get the best resourcing to meet their requirements,” Birks said.

“It may well be that the certain specialisations they are looking for might be more strongly supported by particular locations.”

Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane have all put forward bids to host the NBN base of operations, with the decision in the hands of NBN Co’s board of directors .

More about: Australian Information Industry Association, etwork, Quigley
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Comments

1

Anonymous

Fri 07/08/2009 - 10:35

There is no need for businesses to operate in one location. It is always possible to teleconference if they can get a link with appropriate bandwidth.

2

Anonymous

Fri 07/08/2009 - 17:42

This is the same nonsense that we got from telstra when the bean counters and foreign imports took over from the engineers. Melbourne is the only logical location, it is the heart of telecommunications in Australia.

3

duncs

Fri 07/08/2009 - 20:13

How many international submarine cables land in Melbourne? None.

Melbourne basically connects to the rest of the world through Sydney (and Perth, but I imagine we can safely assume the headquarters for the NBN won't be in WA) so hard to see how Melbourne is the heart of telecoms in Australia.

Not that that really matters though. I'm sure there are plenty of other criteria that the NBN board will consider, but Melbourne is not the <i>only</i> logical choice.

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