NBN appoints chief network engineer

NBN has appointed Peter Ryan to the position of chief network engineering officer.

Ryan had been acting in the role since October.

“Peter is a global veteran of the telco industry and has built a sound knowledge of the business in his previous role of executive general manager, regional deployment,” NBN CEO Bill Morrow said in a statement.

“His expertise is complemented by his strong relationships with the team, both in-house and in our extended team within the delivery partner network. He brings fresh eyes to the role to pair with his experience in the network build.”

“I welcome Peter to the role and look forward to working with him in what will without doubt be some of NBN’s most exciting years,” Morrow said.

“Peter will play a key role on a very capable executive team driving exponential network growth and integration across the multi-technology mix. This is one of the largest infrastructure projects ever seen in Australia and quite possibly, the world.”

Ryan will be a member of NBN’s executive committee and will report to Morrow.

Ryan joined NBN in 2013 as general manager, implementation. Prior to that he worked at Vodafone, where Morrow was CEO until joining NBN.

Communications minister Mitch Fifield said today that NBN’s fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) network was now servicing 1000 premises.

NBN formally launched FTTN earlier this year.

The state of the copper network being used for the FTTN deployment has been the source of controversy. The other major fixed line component of the ‘multi-technology mix’ network, hybrid fibre-coaxial has also been criticised.