August 24, 2010The Sydney Morning Herald and Dow Jones Newswire reports that NBN Co., the organization administering the Australian Government's National Broadband Network, has put the project on hold after national elections in Australia failed to produce a clear majority in Parliament.
The incumbent Labor Government had launched the NBN at a projected cost of AUS$43 billion. However, the opposition Conservative Party offered a plan of its own, reduced both in scale and cost ($6.3 billion).
According to the two news organizations, NBN Co. issued a statement saying that it would not award any "significant" new contracts or issue "significant" new tenders. Existing operations will continue.
A copy of the announcement had not yet been posted on the NBN site at the time of this writing.
Alcatel-Lucent recently won a contract from NBN Co. worth at least AUS$70 million for GPON gear. Needless to say, the total value of that deal now becomes uncertain.
