Adelaide’s Ten Gigabit City plan is a step closer, with the council seeking formal expressions of interest (EOI) for the project.
The council’s 2016-2020 strategy plan, adopted in June last year, committed it to working with partners to roll out a 10Gbps fibre network to premises in the city and North Adelaide.
“This network is transformational 21st century infrastructure, allowing users to connect to global optical fibre networks – facilitating increased growth in an ever more digitally-based economy,” an EOI document released by the council states.
“It will be the fastest, most reliable large data transfer infrastructure in Australia, giving users access to data at phenomenal speeds, using global interconnects and cloud service providers.
“It will put Adelaide firmly on the map as a destination of choice for data-reliant businesses, universities, and government agencies – supporting significant investment and jobs growth.”
The council expects multiple organisations to be involved in rolling out and operating the network.
The network is expected to complement the National Broadband Network and the state government’s Gig City program.
The South Australian government in June said it would pony up $4.65 million to help extend the existing SABRENet research network as part of its Gig City plan.
“The Ten Gigabit City Project and Gig City Adelaide Program are separate and complementary initiatives,” the EOI document states.
A report prepared by de Brenni Executive Consulting Services for the council says the existing council-owned duct, pit and cable network “is a valuable asset which may be leveraged to build a multi Gigabits per second optical fibre network as envisaged”.
“The network structure could be considered as a star of links back to a central point, nominally the Pirie Street Council buildings,” the report states.
“The links provide quite a good extent of coverage towards the ‘edges’ of the Council area. This configuration lends itself well to expansion and diversity. Existing links can be extended and new links provided. Connections between the star links provide coverage to new areas and also provide diversity path options, which is desirable for critical applications.”
The City of Adelaide is accepting expressions of interest via Tenders SA until 7 February.