MELBOURNE, 7 MARCH, 2022 – Australian telecommunications company HyperOne today announced a regional Victorian business had secured a multi-million dollar contract to start constructing the new national fibre network.
The Rochester headquartered company UGC-5DG will build one of two legs between Melbourne and Sydney on the $1.5 Billion national fibre network – the largest privately funded digital infrastructure project in Australian history.
In total, more than 1,000 kms of new fibre is being delivered via UGC-5DG, improving connectivity between the two cities and creating more than 200 new access points for regional communities along the route.
Victorian Minister for Digital Economy, Jaala Pulford, said HyperOne will bring more than a thousand jobs to Victoria.
“Our government has been working hard to grow our digital economy because we know it creates jobs for Victorians right across our state,” she said.
Minister for Industry Support and Recovery Martin Pakula said this major contract to improve connectivity in regional Victoria will deliver a boost to local manufacturing.
“Cable for this network is being manufactured in Victoria and that means more local jobs,” he said
“Victoria is Australia’s leading manufacturing state and these major projects deliver important opportunities for Victorian-based businesses and workers.”
HyperOne Founder Bevan Slattery said the company had made the decision up front to support Australian businesses and workers to build our country’s digital infrastructure skills.
“Our focus has always been on delivering a new digital backbone, built by Australians for Australians – and this contract with UGC-5DG reflects our commitment to Aussie jobs,” he said.
“With our new network we will improve the reliability and quality of connectivity across Australia especially in regional, rural and remote communities who have been left behind.
“We also want to deliver the jobs and training opportunities for more Australian workers to gain employment in the digital economy especially in telecommunications infrastructure.”
Mr Slattery said HyperOne had selected a highly experienced partner in UGC-5DG.
“We are excited to be partnering with UGC-5DG on the delivery of these first segments. UGC-5DG brings a tremendous amount of experience having built some of the most significant telecommunications projects over the last 20 years.”
UGC-5DG Project Director, Ric Oldham, said the consortium will partner with local communities to source skilled people for the project.
“We will be looking to create local jobs for local workers, across the route, spreading the benefits of this project across regional communities,” he said.
“UGC-5DG will also engage with local Indigenous suppliers for construction capability and to assist with the environmental oversight in regional and rural areas.”
HyperOne will connect every Australian capital city via a 20,000km network capable of transmitting up to 10,000 terrabits per second – more than every other digital backbone in Australian history combined.
The network will also provide many regional communities with direct access to backhaul fibre for the first time, via more than 2,000 on and off ramps across the country.
Research from Deloitte Access Economics1 shows the network will unlock more than $22b a year in economic gains, supporting the growth of existing industries like agriculture and resources and the development of emerging industries including data centres, low earth orbit satellite ground stations and artificial intelligence.
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Kate Jones
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About HyperOne
HyperOne is Australia’s new $1.5 billion, 20,000km+ hyperscale fibre optic network. The
project will be the most complete national fibre backbone ever constructed and the first built
in almost two decades, connecting all major data hubs in every capital city in every state and
territory, and delivering better connectivity to regional and remote areas.
HyperOne will be a significant enabler of the future growth of our nation and our digital
economy, capable of delivering more traffic than every other national backbone built in
Australia’s history combined – carrying over 10,000 terabits per second. HyperOne will
support future industries such as aerospace, AI/machine learning, cloud, satellite, defense,
resources, agriculture and renewable energy as well as provide critical backhaul
transmission capacity to existing digital infrastructure and local distribution networks such as
the National Broadband Network and mobile operators.
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