National Broadband Network chief architect Tony Cross, whose role placed him in charge of the rollout of copper connections, resigned today. After six years on the project, Cross’ last day will be this Friday, the day before the Federal Election is to be held.
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ITNews reported on the story, first picked up by CommsDay, and the reason behind the resignation has not been revealed.
“Tony has been with NBN for more than 6 years and leaves us with a long list of achievements,” a representative for NBN said in a statement. “We expect to see him continue to make his mark in the industry and wish him well.”
The former head of Telstra engineering design and development joined NBN fulltime at the start of January 2010 as executive GM for network architecture and technology, and became NBN’s Chief Architect in July 2014. Cross has been around for every incarnation of the project on both sides of government.
The news comes days after former NBN boss Mike Quigley told the Melbourne University Networked Society Institute that the current copper-based FTTN strategy would end up costing more than the original fibre-optic model, stating the the FTTP rollout would have cost $45 billion and been finished by 2021.