Brisbane City Council has cancelled its dealings with fibre provider, i3 Asia Pacific, citing a lack of progress. The $600 million scheme was meant to supply fibre optic cabling through Brisbane’s sewerage system.
According to a council spokesperson, Mayor Campbell Newman told the city’s chamber today the provider had not provided sufficient progress and that it would pursue other suppliers for a fibre optic network. He also said it would not cost the city any money to scrap.
Multinational company i3 Asia-Pacific had promised to provide the technology within four years, with plans to roll it out to 15,000 homes a month.
“We are not happy, in fact, with the progress of the i3 group and we will not be proceeding with them,” he said, according to the Courier Mail."The reason I state that we don't wish to proceed with i3...is because...when we're doing our due diligence we are not happy with what i3 have put on the table.
“We're not being kept up-to-date with all the things that we should have."
The issue was brought up by Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, as an example of potential competition against the National Broadband Network falling over.
It marks the second time i3 has had a high-profile fibre-over-sewerage network go under after the city of Bournemouth cancelled dealings due to contractual issues and a breakdown of negotiations with the sewerage system operators, Wessex Water.
The i3 rollout faced controversy early on with Conroy pointing out it lacked a cost-benefit analysis. Mayor Campbell Newman was forced to deny he had misled constituents in October 2010.
Spokespeople for i3 Asia Pacific were contacted by ARN, but were unable to comment by time of publication.
