Building the NBN, one iPhone at a time

By GovTechReview Staff
Friday, 15 February, 2013

They may be building the infrastructure behind our fastest cutting edge telecommunications networks, but engineering teams often have to contend with antiquated operational methods to get the job done.

Given the remote terrain and situations that they are often operating in, capturing and relaying data for engineers in the field is one of biggest concerns for project managers.

To improve this situation, seasoned infrastructure deployment specialists Kordia developed an in-house iPhone app that allows engineers to retrieve, capture and relay rich data from site surveys in real time. The iPhone app, which is currently being considered to be launched as a licenced product, was originally developed during the design phase for the first-release national broadband network (NBN) site in Townsville.

The initial Townsville site covered about 3100 premises with an additional 3000 premises covered off in stage two. Given the NBN deployment’s difficult and unpredictable geographic rollout areas, the design work had to be done on site in ‘brownfield’ deployment areas with existing infrastructure.

The app was developed organically as engineers worked out what served them best in terms of using audio, video or data streaming to survey a rollout site. The data was collated and then transmitted live to the NBN Co database using the iPhone app. The project included ‘for construction’ diagrams, outside plant equipment selection, methodology and decision matrices for design rules, documentation on asset identification, optical budget planning, production of the bill of materials, and engagement with local utility suppliers – and the local council. To support the iPhone application, the Downer/Kordia team also developed an asset database register called KOST (Kordia Operations Services Team). The database allows for asset information to be collected during the field scoping phase for use during the design phase. The database comes complete with photos, asset location, customer property entry information, conduit requirements and more. “The intention of the iPhone application is to enhance the efficiency of data collection in the field with immediate upload capabilities,” said Kordia MD Peter Robson.

This case study formed part of a feature that was originally published in the April/May 2012 issue of Government Technology Review.