Cities battle for NBN central
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/sto ... 06,00.html
Mitchell Bingemann | July 28, 2009
THE government may have just appointed an executive chairman to lead its ambitious plan to build and operate a $43 billion national broadband network but it is not clear which city the NBN company will call home.
NSW, Victoria and Queensland have all sought to claim the NBN headquarters, but so far only the two southern states have shown the conviction to make real bids.
Hosting the NBN headquarters promises a big lift to employment, funding and kudos for the successful city and state.
There are concerns that the final location of the NBN headquarters could be decided politically -- with some government sources saying Brisbane will be favoured as the home of Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan.
Others say Victoria's connection with Communications Minister Stephen Conroy will give it the edge.
The decision will lie, however, with the company's board which, after months of government deliberation, was given its first executive chairman at the weekend with the appointment of former Alcatel US boss Mike Quigley.
Regardless of where the NBN headquarters ends up, the same prize is on the line for each of the bidders: the creation of up to 500 direct jobs, thousands more in related private sector investment and hundreds of millions of dollars in payroll tax revenue.
Mr Quigley said it was too early to say how many of the 25,000 to 35,000 staff needed for the project would be situated at the NBN Co's head office.
That will depend partly on how much network is vended into the project by Telstra and others, as such transactions would come with staff attached.
"I have only been in the job three days so it's far too early to make those decisions," he said.
Last week NSW Premier Nathan Rees launched Sydney's bid for the NBN headquarters, forming a taskforce headed by Sydney Chamber of Commerce executive director Patricia Forsythe and NSW Chief Scientist Mary O'Kane.
Their first action was to list Redfern's Australia Technology Park, Barangaroo on the harbour, and North Ryde's Global Business Centre as possible locations for the head office.
Mr Rees said the state was well positioned to host the NBN due to the number of telecom companies based there, Sydney's role as a financial hub and the presence of the national innovation centre, National ICT Australia.
The NSW government has also said it would fast-track the construction of the NBN.
Mr Rees said Sydney's nine data centres and the fact that it accounted for 43 per cent of national expenditure on telecommunications research and development made it the ideal location for the NBN headquarters.
"It's time to confirm Sydney as the logical choice for the national broadband project," Mr Rees said last week.
"Sydney's track record of delivering big projects is a clear advantage over other cities. We delivered the Olympics, not the Commonwealth Games."
Data centres and Olympic Games preparations may not be enough to persuade the NBN board to set up shop in NSW, especially with the case that Victoria has put up.
Already the Victorian government has pumped $2 million into the recently opened $50m Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society, located at Melbourne University, and a further $5m to develop and trial next-generation technology.
The institute is being positioned as a testbed for technology based on optical fibre networks and will be used to develop and test products and services designed to run on next-generation internet infrastructure, such as the NBN.
"This funding builds on the recent announcement of the $50m Institute for the Broadband Enabled Society, which will start the development of new fibre broadband applications," Victorian Premier John Brumby said last week.
"This is another reason why Victoria is the natural home for the NBN corporation, along with Victoria's impressive reputation in innovation and broadband technology."
Mr Brumby has cited his state's high concentration of skilled telecoms and IT workers to bolster its bid to be the NBN's home.
While NSW and Victoria have claimed infrastructure superiority and backed their bids with cash injections, Queensland has not been so dynamic.
So far the only argument for a Queensland-based NBN headquarters has come from Premier Anna Bligh's office, in the form of a claim that Victoria had Telstra and NSW had Optus, so Brisbane should get the NBN.
"Queensland is currently finalising its bid for the headquarters of the NBN. Due to Queensland being the state with the most decentralised population, Brisbane remains the best location for the effective rollout of the NBN across all of Australia," a spokesman from Ms Bligh's office said.
The man responsible for Queensland's bid, ICT Minister Robert Schwarten, said its position as Australia's fastest-growing state would strengthen its case to headquarter the NBN company.
Its bid would be made public in due course, he said.
"We regard it as a discourtesy to the Prime Minister to publicly air our submission prior to it being considered by the selection process the federal government has put in place to determine the location of the new headquarters," Mr Schwarten said.
One of Australia's foremost experts in broadband technology, Rod Tucker, said the Queensland government's decentralisation argument actually highlighted a weakness.
"I won't comment on Queensland's bid but I will say that an NBN company that is going to hire a large number of technical people will find it a much easier task if they do it where the workers currently are," Professor Tucker said.
"The cost of establishing a company where you then have to import skills and workers and their families from out of state is a big problem."
The probability of a two-horse race between Sydney and Melbourne was reiterated by a former high-ranking telecoms executive who spoke to The Australian.
"Whether it's Sydney or Melbourne it shouldn't really matter because both have the infrastructure and skilled personnel to make it work, but it's a stretch to see it in Queensland and it will be a very hard case for them to make," the former executive said.
Professor Tucker said the network headquarters needed to be in a city with a high concentration of skilled engineers and scientists. Melbourne and Sydney were the obvious choices.
"When it comes to the headquarters there will be a big design effort, so there is a need for skilled personnel in the planning and operation of the network", he said. "Silicon Valley in the US is successful because so many skilled people live in that area and are attracted to the companies housed there.
"So clearly it will be attractive to put the NBN headquarters in a place like Sydney or Melbourne, where there is a strong concentration of skilled people."
