Shares in Australian tech firm NetComm Wireless have soared on news the company has signed a major hardware supply deal with NBN, the company building the national broadband network.
NetComm Wireless has signed a deal to provide distribution point units for the National Broadband Network's fibre-to-the-curb (FTTC) offering.
The deal was announced after the close of trade on Tuesday, and Netcomm shares gained 53 cents, or 24 per cent, to $2.74 on Wednesday.
FTTC takes cable to telecom pits outside premises, which is closer than fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) and cheaper and less complex than fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP)
NetComm will provide one and four-port distribution point units in the telecom pits from 2018.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
NetComm chief network engineering officer Peter Ryan said testing over the past year showed FTTC would deliver download speeds of up to 100/40 megabites per second and allow even faster speeds in future as new technology becomes available.
"NBN has a flexible and technology-agnostic approach to deploying the NBN network and we are confident that when we launch FTTC services we will deliver a great experience for end-users," he said in a statement.
NetComm chief executive David Stewart said fibre-to-the-distribution-point FTTdp technology, or FTTC distribution point units, had been specifically developed to help roll out the NBN in a faster, more efficient way.
"What's exciting is that our solution for FTTdp has broader, global applications that will open up additional partnership prospects offshore, as we have done with NetComm Wireless' fixed wireless solution," he said.
