Monday, 7 November 2022, Brisbane, Queensland – QCN’s CEO, Derek Merdith, launched QCN’s brand new Infrastructure Partner Program at the CommsDay Wholesale Forum in Sydney.
QCN’s core strategy has been to leverage government-owned telecommunications assets. Since its inception, QCN has grown into a carrier agnostic wholesaler of telecommunications infrastructure with over 13,000 km of fibre and more than 20,000 towers.
“We all know that the telecommunications industry is capital intensive, and we are in an increasingly capital constrained economy. QCN has a mandate to break the Digital Divide in Queensland. That is one big ask, even with our vast asset base,” he said.
“We see significant levels of underutilised telco assets across local governments, utilities, power generators, private companies, and smaller regional telcos. For many of these organisations, the telco infrastructure assets, whether fibre, ducts, comms towers or co-lo facilities, are non-core, yet come with significant obligations and reporting to meet licensing and regulatory requirements,” he added.
“Our QCN Infrastructure Partner Program provides a range of options to these organisations to either monetise the value of these assets, reduce the compliance and reporting impost and share in revenue potential of their investment.”
QCN can ‘plumb’ various infrastructure into its existing network and significantly extend its coverage, without unnecessary capital expenditure or overbuilding. Partners participate in one of three ways. Firstly, where QCN acquires unwanted assets via purchase, an IRU lease or capacity swap. Secondly, where QCN acts as the organisation’s Nominated Carrier (NCD as a Service), for either a fee or a revenue share arrangement. The third option is to collaborate with QCN to mutually benefit from connecting into the QCN network. In this approach, organisations can undertake co-operative marketing and share in the revenue.
“Our first Partner, Lumea, which is a Collaboration Partner, connects our intercap paths from Brisbane to Sydney. Across both our networks there is close to 21,000 kms of fibre, stretching from Far North Queensland to Victoria, and over 57,500 towers. Our combined network can deliver wavelength services from Cairns to Geelong. We look forward to announcing more Partners soon.”
ENDS
For further information please contact:
Emily Kucukalic
+61 403 931 360
emily@bny.com.au
About QCN
QCN provides carrier-grade backhaul services to other carriers and Internet and retail service providers, delivering increased data capacity through state-of-the-art, stable, optical networks and access to tower infrastructure.
QCN’s mission is to improve regional connectivity through leveraging the spare telecommunications capacity of Queensland government-owned assets. QCN is jointly owned by Powerlink and Energy Queensland, Queensland Government-owned Corporations.
By delivering improved telecommunications Coverage, Capacity and Competition, QCN enables Queenslanders to take advantage of their exceptional opportunities in the emerging economy. QCN’s operations improve regional connectivity through increasing competition and supporting new investment and jobs in regional Queensland.
QCN’s core network utilises Powerlink and Energy Queensland’s existing telecommunications facilities, with network extensions leveraging traditional telecommunications infrastructure providers. Since its inception in early 2020, QCN has driven a ten-fold increase in delivered capacity across the more than 13,000 kilometres of fibre stretching West from Brisbane to Toowoomba and beyond, and North through regional townships up to Cairns. In 2022, QCN opened up access to Powerlink’s more than 20,000 tower and co-location infrastructure, to its wholesale customers.
