Telstra to trial FTTP in Point Cook

Telstra announced a trial in Point Cook, a suburb in Melbourne’s south-west, to upgrade part of its access network with fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) technology.

The upgrade will mean around 1500 residential customers in the area will have the opportunity to be one of the first in Australia to have Telstra replace their copper access with fibre, bringing their broadband speeds into line with some of the fastest residential services in the world.

Telstra has invited the NBN Co to act as an observer on the project, which could provide NBN Co important insights into the network deployment and customer migration aspects of its planned National Broadband Network (NBN) project.

Executive Director of Telstra Network & Technology Michael Lawrey said Point Cook was an ideal location for the trial because the area’s rapid residential growth in recent years meant demand for broadband had outstripped the capacity of the copper network.

“Demand for broadband in areas of Point Cook is very high,” Lawrey said. “In improving the capacity of broadband in these areas, we had a choice of upgrading the copper infrastructure, which might shortly be overbuilt by the NBN, or using fibre. Rolling out fibre is in line with the government’s vision to get fibre to as many Australian homes as quickly as possible and could provide valuable lessons for the NBN.”

The FTTP build will commence immediately and is expected to be completed by May 2010. On completion, residents in the trial area will be able to take up a fibre service or retain their existing copper line.

Once the deployment is completed, Telstra will trial an interim wholesale offering over the fibre, with the detail of both retail and wholesale offerings to be released closer to the build’s completion.