Featured, News - Monday, March 21, 2011 9:04 - 204 Comments

NBN may not be completed, says Turnbull

Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull late last week warned the National Broadband Network may end up not being fully constructed, due to what he described as “the crippling costs of the project” and the likelihood that the Australian Labor Party might lose government in a future election.

The Liberal MP’s comments came after Telstra last week revealed it had been forced to delay a vote to be put to shareholders regarding whether it should go ahead with its $11 billion deal to transfer customers onto the NBN as the new fibre monopoly rolls out its infrastructure around the nation, with NBN Co subsequently stating the deal could affect the timing of the next stage of its fibre rollout plans.

Turnbull said in a blog post that it could be assumed that the delay was the consequence of Telstra’s management taking “great care” to ensure that its shareholders were protected in what would be “a very large and very complex transaction”.

“No doubt central to the negotiations is the very high probability that the NBN is never completed,” Turnbull added. “Most people in the industry I talk to are of the view that even if the Labor Party were to stay in Government the crippling costs of the project will cause it to be abandoned, at least in the form it has been announced.”

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