NBN Co, the broadband company, has chosen Melbourne as the site for its Network Operations Centre (NOC) and Test Facility to monitor and manage the National Broadband Network (NBN). The company says that the centre would create up to 425 jobs in the area.

"NBN Co is adopting a management model for the installation of services and fault repairs, so we will be contracting work throughout Australia to suitably qualified and accredited companies, coordinated from this centre," Mike Quigley, NBN Co chief executive officer, said in a statement.

"This facility will be the centrepiece of our network and the key interface with our customers, the retail service providers, who will be using our network to provide high-speed services to their business and residential customers across Australia."

The NOC's main purpose would be to assist new customers of the NBN. This involves coordinating and provisioning fault repairs, managing network traffic, providing data for billing and taking service orders from retail service providers.

The facility will be housed within four floors of the Innovation Building in the Docklands area. It will contain the NOC, the National Test Facility and Service Activation Centre.

The Melbourne site is scheduled to be operational by early 2011.