NBN Co has awarded seven contracts worth about $3 billion for upgrades to its national network, with Ventia, Downer and Perth-based GenusPlus Group among the winners.


NBN Co has awarded seven contracts worth about $3 billion for upgrades to its national network, with Ventia, Downer and Perth-based GenusPlus Group among the winners.
The contracts support nbn upgrading the remaining Fibre to the Node (FTTN) network in all states across Australia.
The work will be undertaken over the next 3.5 years.
GenusPlus said its contract had a value of about $130 million.
It will provide design and construction services to deploy additional fibre infrastructure to approximately 22,000 properties across Western Australia.
It comes after Genus and other contractors recently completed the N2P Evolution Module for nbn.
“We are delighted to have secured this important contract and we look forward to continuing to develop our relationship with nbn as a key delivery partner; completing the works safely, efficiently, and on time,” managing director David Riches said.
He added that the contract marked another step forward in GenusPlus Group’s progress towards becoming a nationally scaled, tier one contractor of choice.
Downer has won a similar contract for upgrades across metropolitan and regional WA but did not quantify its value.
ASX-listed Ventia appeared to be the big winner.
Its subsidiary, Visionstream Australia, expects to earn $800 million deploying additional fibre infrastructure to enable approximately 175,000 premises to transition from FTTN to Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) across Queensland, NSW, Victoria, WA and Tasmania.
ASX-listed Service Stream said its contract was worth about $440 million for work across Queensland, NSW and Victoria.
UGL, Enerven and Fulton Hogan have also been contracted to deliver upgrades but did not disclose details.
NBN Co did not specify the overall value of the new contracts but Business News has prepared its own estimate of $3 billion, based on data provided by the winning contractors.
NBN Co did say the upgrade program was backed by an equity investment of up to $3 billion from the Australian government, in addition to more than $800 million from its own balance sheet.
The investment will help to provide full fibre upgrade pathways to around 95 per cent of the approximately 622,000 homes and businesses that remain exclusively served by FTTN technology, with more than half located in regional Australia.