Gold Coast plans $10m fibre expansion

The City of Gold Coast plans to further expand its city-owned carrier-grade fibre network with an additional 37 km fibre loop.

The $10 million network expansion will add the Broadbeach, Burleigh, Varsity Lakes and Robina regions to the network, which was originally installed to support the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

The existing 65 km fibre backbone runs along the Gold Coast’s light rail corridor from Helensvale to Broadbeach, and was installed at a cost of $4.5 million.

Adding the 37 km loop is expected to allow the city to achieve around $2.5 million in cost savings, in addition to the revenue gained from opening access to the network to ISPs for backhaul and internet services.

Brisbane-based high-speed networking provider Nexium has the contract to on-sell capacity to the network to telecoms companies and enterprises, with several companies already in negotiation.

Gold Coast Chief Innovation and Economy Officer Ian Hatton said the network will also have the capacity to support the accelerated deployment of 5G and other technologies requiring high bandwidth.

“We’re developing a low-latency, high-core-count fibre-optic network that has the capacity to deliver the fastest internet speeds in Australia. When finished, the network will be 100 times faster than what exists today,” he said.

Telstra recently switched on its first 5G cell sites in the Gold Coast and is operating its 5G Innovation Centre in the region.

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