NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley has welcomed the opening of an $11 million expansion to the Prysmian fibre manufacturing facility in Dee Why, NSW.

“The expansion came about after a commitment was made to source approximately 80% of the value of the NBN Co Prysmian cabling contract within Australia,” Mike says.

“It’s great to see Prysmian, a global manufacturer of telecommunications cabling, investing here in Australia due to the Federal Government’s decision to build the National Broadband Network.”

In January last year, NBN Co awarded Prysmian a five-year contract valued at up to $300 million to provide cabling for the National Broadband Network project. Since then Prysmian has invested in expanding its manufacturing facilities to assist in meeting the needs of Australia’s largest infrastructure project.

The investment includes an additional cable plant and equipment to manufacture specialised ribbon cable locally, as well as expansion of the company’s cable sheathing operations.

On top of the multi-million dollar investment, the five-year contract also secures job certainty for approximately 100 existing staff within the Dee Why facility, with the potential for up to 50 additional jobs to be created as the project ramps up.

Prysmian also expects there to be a flow-on employment effect, with extra jobs likely to be created in training, administration transport and logistics.

Today’s news follows yesterday’s announcement of NBN Co’s updated Corporate Plan, which confirmed NBN Co’s commitment to connect all Australian premises to high-speed broadband over the remaining nine years of the 10 year project.

Mike adds, “Construction is forecast to have commenced or completed for around 758,000 premises by December 2012, and for approximately 3.5 million premises by mid 2015, which is in line with NBN Co’s 12 month and three year rollout plans.

“Prysmian’s investment will play a vital role in helping to deliver fibre to 93% of homes and business across Australia.

“I congratulate Prysmian on its facility upgrade, which will help support NBN Co’s plan to deliver high-speed broadband to every home and business across this country,” he says.