Nextgen Networks
Encyclopedia
Nextgen Networks is an Australian communications company which is a subsidiary
of Leighton Holdings
, one of Australia's major companies.
Nextgens Network is based on a geographically protected national network, with the Brisbane
to Melbourne
link utilising self-healing SDH
two-fibre ring architecture. The Ring System covers Brisbane
, Sydney
, Canberra
and Melbourne
and a Flat Ring Link through to Adelaide
and Perth
as well as covering 70 major and regional population centres along the route. The Network covers a total of 8,500 km and is the most modern network of the three largest fibre
Networks (Telstra
, Optus
and Nextgen).
, Deutsche Bank
, UBS Capital
and WestLB
.
Visionstream (another subsidiary of Leightons
) constructed the Network consisting of four network loops each with 12 fibre pairs, with each fibre pair capable of 800Gb/s. The network owners intention was to provide the highest network quality, which led to the use of using many state of the art technologies (at the time).
Lucent
supplied the TrueWave RS G655 Fibre developed by Bell Labs
to provide high bandwidth capacity and specially designed for long distance DWDM optical cables. Being a Non-zero dispersion shifted fibre
it has minimum light dispersion
, allowing signals to travel long distances with enough dispersion to prevent crosstalk from adjacent signals. It was built to Australian conditions to prevent against not only rodents but wombat
s, christmas tree
roots and erosion from black soil.
Lucent also supplied newest technology WaveStar OLS 400G DWDM systems and WaveStar Bandwidth Manager.
Nettest's QUESTfiber technology supplied the remote fibre test system (the largest network of its type in the Australia Pacific region) within the Nextgen Networks DWDM network. This gives the benefit of a fully managed network backbone with minimal downtime, when a fault is detected the location is known to within a few metres, as well as showing the health of the cables and its segments, allowing for preemptive maintenance where cable is showing signs of distress.
at Milvale, after many months of project management planning which included sourcing of materials, negotiating access along the route that the cable and equipment will travel, environmental management and working with indigenous leaders to fully gps map sensitive areas to avoid damage.
The project was brought in ahead of schedule in May 2003, construction was handed over from Visionstream to Nextgen Networks in four main Stages occurring at the following dates.
Activities included route construction, urban works, cultural heritage walkouts and the construction of Primary Nodes in each capital city on the route (the Primary Nodes serve as the prime point of interconnection in the network by which customers will access their services).
of Nextgen Networks, and although the network was solid the traffic and sales needed to support the financing unfortunately did not eventuate, During the twelve month price war
competition bit hard on Nextgen and the other intercity cable providers with the price of backhaul between Australian cities dropping by 70% leaving Nextgen without the funds it needed to repay the debt. This situation was repeated right around the world with many similar owners of fibre optic cable
s also in financial difficulty and here in Australia with another major Fibre Optic Cable player Amcom backed IP1 Australia who built cable networks from Melbourne
through to Perth
going into receivership and bought at a fire sale
price of $45m (about a quarter of its construction cost of $160m ) by Telstra
. Also during this period, a multi terabit
international cable Nava-1 was shelved.
On 23 June 2002 administrators were called in by the National Australia Bank
.
In December 2002, Leighton picked up the Network for a total between $20m and $30m with the Banking Syndicate having a share in the companies growth for the next 10 years. Nextgen became a full subsidiary of Leighton Holdings and is therefore now debt free.
On 30 June 2006 Senetas and Nextgen launched Layer 2 Ethernet VPN, which features encrypted security
On 2 June 2008 Nextgen announced the acquisition of rival carrier Silk Telecom.
Subsidiary
A subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...
of Leighton Holdings
Leighton Holdings
Leighton Holdings is Australia's largest project development and contracting group. It is active in the telecommunications, engineering and infrastructure, building and property, mining and resources, and environmental services industries...
, one of Australia's major companies.
Nextgens Network is based on a geographically protected national network, with the Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
to Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
link utilising self-healing SDH
Synchronous optical networking
Synchronous Optical Networking and Synchronous Digital Hierarchy are standardized multiplexing protocols that transfer multiple digital bit streams over optical fiber using lasers or highly coherent light from light-emitting diodes . At low transmission rates data can also be transferred via an...
two-fibre ring architecture. The Ring System covers Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
and Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
and a Flat Ring Link through to Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
and Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
as well as covering 70 major and regional population centres along the route. The Network covers a total of 8,500 km and is the most modern network of the three largest fibre
Optical fiber
An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of a pure glass not much wider than a human hair. It functions as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of...
Networks (Telstra
Telstra
Telstra Corporation Limited is an Australian telecommunications and media company, building and operating telecommunications networks and marketing voice, mobile, internet access and pay television products and services....
, Optus
Optus
SingTel Optus Pty Limited is the second largest telecommunications company in Australia, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore Telecommunications...
and Nextgen).
History
The Network was constructed in 2002 and cost around $850 million to construct as a Joint Venture of Leighton Contractors ($140m) and Macquarie Bank using state of the art equipment from suppliers such as Lucent and financed by a consortium including Leighton Holdings, Macquarie Bank, National Australia BankNational Australia Bank
National Australia Bank is one of the four largest financial institutions in Australia in terms of market capitalisation and customers. NAB is ranked 17th largest bank in the world measured by market capitalisation...
, Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets...
, UBS Capital
UBS AG
UBS AG is a Swiss global financial services company headquartered in Basel and Zürich, Switzerland, which provides investment banking, asset management, and wealth management services for private, corporate, and institutional clients worldwide, as well as retail clients in Switzerland...
and WestLB
WestLB
WestLB AG is a European commercial bank based in Düsseldorf in Germany which is partly owned by the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The letters LB in the name stand for Landesbank. The Landesbanken are a group of state owned banks unique to Germany...
.
Visionstream (another subsidiary of Leightons
Leighton Holdings
Leighton Holdings is Australia's largest project development and contracting group. It is active in the telecommunications, engineering and infrastructure, building and property, mining and resources, and environmental services industries...
) constructed the Network consisting of four network loops each with 12 fibre pairs, with each fibre pair capable of 800Gb/s. The network owners intention was to provide the highest network quality, which led to the use of using many state of the art technologies (at the time).
Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent is a global telecommunications corporation, headquartered in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France. It provides telecommunications solutions to service providers, enterprises, and governments around the world, enabling these customers to deliver voice, data, and video services...
supplied the TrueWave RS G655 Fibre developed by Bell Labs
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
to provide high bandwidth capacity and specially designed for long distance DWDM optical cables. Being a Non-zero dispersion shifted fibre
Nonzero dispersion shifted fiber
Non-zero dispersion-shifted fiber , specified in ITU-T G.655, is a type of single-mode optical fiber which was designed to overcome the problems of dispersion-shifted fiber. NZDSF is available in two primary flavors: NZD+ and NZD-, which differ in their zero-dispersion wavelengths. These are...
it has minimum light dispersion
Dispersion (optics)
In optics, dispersion is the phenomenon in which the phase velocity of a wave depends on its frequency, or alternatively when the group velocity depends on the frequency.Media having such a property are termed dispersive media...
, allowing signals to travel long distances with enough dispersion to prevent crosstalk from adjacent signals. It was built to Australian conditions to prevent against not only rodents but wombat
Wombat
Wombats are Australian marsupials; they are short-legged, muscular quadrupeds, approximately in length with a short, stubby tail. They are adaptable in their habitat tolerances, and are found in forested, mountainous, and heathland areas of south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania, as well as...
s, christmas tree
Christmas tree
The Christmas tree is a decorated evergreen coniferous tree, real or artificial, and a tradition associated with the celebration of Christmas. The tradition of decorating an evergreen tree at Christmas started in Livonia and Germany in the 16th century...
roots and erosion from black soil.
Lucent also supplied newest technology WaveStar OLS 400G DWDM systems and WaveStar Bandwidth Manager.
Nettest's QUESTfiber technology supplied the remote fibre test system (the largest network of its type in the Australia Pacific region) within the Nextgen Networks DWDM network. This gives the benefit of a fully managed network backbone with minimal downtime, when a fault is detected the location is known to within a few metres, as well as showing the health of the cables and its segments, allowing for preemptive maintenance where cable is showing signs of distress.
The building of the network
Visionstream commenced building of the Network on 15 June 2001 with the first soil being turned and commencement of laying the fibre 40km west of Young, New South WalesYoung, New South Wales
-Demographics:On census night, 7 August 2001, there were 6,821 people counted in Young. There were 238 people who identified as being of Indigenous origin in the 2001 Census...
at Milvale, after many months of project management planning which included sourcing of materials, negotiating access along the route that the cable and equipment will travel, environmental management and working with indigenous leaders to fully gps map sensitive areas to avoid damage.
The project was brought in ahead of schedule in May 2003, construction was handed over from Visionstream to Nextgen Networks in four main Stages occurring at the following dates.
| Stage | Location | Handover Date |
|---|---|---|
| Stage 1 | Melbourne - Sydney Loop | 30 September 2002 |
| Stage 2 | Sydney - Brisbane Loop | 20 January 2003 |
| Stage 3 | Melbourne - Adelaide | 7 December 2002 |
| Stage 4 | Adelaide - Perth | 15 May 2003 |
Activities included route construction, urban works, cultural heritage walkouts and the construction of Primary Nodes in each capital city on the route (the Primary Nodes serve as the prime point of interconnection in the network by which customers will access their services).
Rocky Roads
During 2002 trouble hit the consortiumConsortium
A consortium is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal....
of Nextgen Networks, and although the network was solid the traffic and sales needed to support the financing unfortunately did not eventuate, During the twelve month price war
Price war
Price war is a term used in economic sector to indicate a state of intense competitive rivalry accompanied by a multi-lateral series of price reduction. One competitor will lower its price, then others will lower their prices to match. If one of them reduces their price again, a new round of...
competition bit hard on Nextgen and the other intercity cable providers with the price of backhaul between Australian cities dropping by 70% leaving Nextgen without the funds it needed to repay the debt. This situation was repeated right around the world with many similar owners of fibre optic cable
Optical fiber
An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of a pure glass not much wider than a human hair. It functions as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of...
s also in financial difficulty and here in Australia with another major Fibre Optic Cable player Amcom backed IP1 Australia who built cable networks from Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
through to Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
going into receivership and bought at a fire sale
Fire sale
A fire sale is the sale of goods at extremely discounted prices, typically when the seller faces bankruptcy or other impending distress. The term may originally have been based on the sale of goods at a heavy discount due to fire damage...
price of $45m (about a quarter of its construction cost of $160m ) by Telstra
Telstra
Telstra Corporation Limited is an Australian telecommunications and media company, building and operating telecommunications networks and marketing voice, mobile, internet access and pay television products and services....
. Also during this period, a multi terabit
Terabit
The terabit is a multiple of the unit bit for digital information or computer storage. The prefix tera is defined in the International System of Units as a multiplier of 1012 , and therefore...
international cable Nava-1 was shelved.
On 23 June 2002 administrators were called in by the National Australia Bank
National Australia Bank
National Australia Bank is one of the four largest financial institutions in Australia in terms of market capitalisation and customers. NAB is ranked 17th largest bank in the world measured by market capitalisation...
.
In December 2002, Leighton picked up the Network for a total between $20m and $30m with the Banking Syndicate having a share in the companies growth for the next 10 years. Nextgen became a full subsidiary of Leighton Holdings and is therefore now debt free.
Continual development
On 8 March 2006 Nextgen launched Australia's first Virtual Private LAN Service.On 30 June 2006 Senetas and Nextgen launched Layer 2 Ethernet VPN, which features encrypted security
On 2 June 2008 Nextgen announced the acquisition of rival carrier Silk Telecom.