Clare bemoans Coalition’s 500k NBN “victims”

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jason-clare

news Shadow Communications Minister Jason Clare has issued a statement claiming that half a million homes and businesses have become the first “victims” of the Coalition’s revised NBN policy and that the new Coalition Government is not sticking to its promise of honouring existing NBN fibre contracts.

Yesterday the National Broadband Network Company updated its projected rollout maps to provide residents and businesses around Australia with greater certainty in terms of when they can expect the NBN’s infrastructure to be deployed to their area. Previously, the maps had shown NBN Co’s three year rollout schedule. However, they had become substantially inaccurate due to the fact that the project has been repeatedly delayed in many areas nationally.

Simultaneously, NBN Co published the first of an ongoing series of weekly reports which will chart the progress of the rollout, providing a more detailed look at the project than had previously been possible under the previous Labor administration, which only provided updates once every three months.

The information also distinguishes for the first time between those premises passed by fibre that are able to connect to the NBN and those that are not yet able to obtain a service (typically because they are located in a multi dwelling unit, such as an apartment building or shopping mall).

The rollout of the fixed-line network is underway for approximately 300,000 homes and businesses in built-up areas (“brownfields”). The maps will be updated when further areas enter the building stage and the shape of the rollout becomes clearer following the completion of the Strategic Review into the NBN.

Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, while in Opposition, had stated that NBN Co under a Coalition Government would honour existing construction contracts signed under Labor. This statement has been taken by many in the community to mean that the Coalition would continue deploying fibre to the full extent contracted under those arrangements.

However, it has been clear for some time that NBN Co’s contracts with its construction partners allow for significant modification of the work and that those same contractors may be contracted to deploy different styles of NBN rollout — for example, Fibre to the Basement- or Fibre to the Node-style rollouts, as opposed to Labor’s Fibre to the Premises model — or that the contracts may even be able to be cancelled in some cases due to a lack of delivery by the contractors concerned.

In late September, Turnbull ordered NBN Co to continue with construction works where work orders had been issued, but also ordered NBN Co not to begin new construction works without consulting the Government. The updated NBN maps merely reflect this situation – which has been evident for a month.

However, in a statement issued yesterday, new Shadow Communications Minister Jason Clare accused the Coalition of creating “victims” of its “cuts” to the NBN.

“More than half a million homes and businesses were today identified as the first victims of the Coalition cuts to the National Broadband Network,” a statement issued by the Labor MP wrote. “Shadow Minister for Communications Jason Clare called on the Coalition Government to stick to its word and honour existing National Broadband Contracts whilst the NBN Co Strategic Review is underway.”

“Before the election Malcolm Turnbull promised to honour existing contracts, now he has broken that promise,” Clare added, stating that this week 500,000 homes and businesses that previously had a date on which they could expect fibre-to-the-home broadband to be connected were quietly moved to a list entitled “TBA”.

“This week Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull have pulled the plug on half a million homes and businesses that were expecting to receive fibre to the home. They are the first victims of the Coalition’s cuts to the NBN,” Clare said.

Deputy Shadow Communications Minister Michelle Rowland added: “The Coalition Government needs to stick to its word, honour existing contracts and let workers get on with rolling out the NBN,” Ms Rowland said.

Turnbull told the ABC this morning that the old maps were misleading because they listed areas as being “under construction” even though they were only at the planning stage. “What we’re doing is spelling out the facts about the NBN’s performance, instead of trying to create false impressions,” the Liberal MP said.”Under the Labor regime, they were basically being misled.”

Image credit: Australian Customs and Border Protection Service

57 COMMENTS

  1. “Turnbull told the ABC this morning that the old maps were misleading because they listed areas as being “under construction” even though they were only at the planning stage.”

    Complete bullshit. If that’s the case then he could have changed the status of those areas to “In Planning” or something else to better reflect the status. This strikes of the overall LNP policy of killing the NBN for ideological reasons, despite their latest promises to continue building the network.

    Not only do they completely remove the status from those places not in construction, they also have directed NBN Co to report on less in its reports. So much for promised transparency.

    • I have to say, I completely agree with Turnbull here. It is factually correct that the old maps were extremely misleading along precisely the lines he claims. I got dozens of reader complaints about the issue. People would commonly say that the maps showed construction had begun or had even finished, but nothing had been done at all.

      The Coalition is completely valid to update these maps.

      • Renai,

        Malcolm Turnbull is misleading the Australian public here. NBN Co previously listed areas where “Work commenced” – not “under construction” as Malcolm is asserting. Common sense tells me that roping and rodding, physical network design, and premises counting are all forms of actual work being conducted by the contractor.

        Saying that when a network design has been approved as an indication on when “Build” actually commences is also misleading. There are several areas that are expected to to ready for service on September 2013. And I know for a fact that the actual “build” had not commenced in those areas either.

      • I think the Libs are splitting hairs a bit here.

        On one hand they’re managing expectations – happy with that, if construction hasn’t started then it hasn’t started.

        On the other they seem to be trying to say that unless fibre is in the ground then construction hasn’t started, which isn’t right either.

        I know here in Dubbo that it appears they were up to the actual fibre laying stage which from what I can gather is a long way through the process, so much so that it would classify as construction started and yet the map has been changed showing no action at all.

        Given the stage it’s up to, even if the design was switched to FTTN for Dubbo, rollout would happen extremely quickly as all the legwork has been done.

        Call me a cynic but I can only imagine that going from the new ‘nothing started’ to ‘completed’ in such a short space of time will be blasted from the media by the Liberals with zero mention of the state of the area when they took over.

        • Given the stage Dubbo is up to, I fail to see how it could not possibly meet anyone’s definition of “under construction”. Clearly Turnbull isn’t using anyone’s standard definition. The removal of Dubbo from the map makes little sense.

        • “On the other they seem to be trying to say that unless fibre is in the ground then construction hasn’t started, which isn’t right either.”

          and you are wrong. they haven’t even started laying fibre in my area, yet im now in a brown patch. that was due for rfs by today and iv seen jack shit happen. they’ve walked around past my house, twice. that’s all anyone I know has seen.

          now, given my area was due to be rfs oct 2013 and they’ve done squat, it was VERY misleading previously. all those people with hopes up that got let down. I get lots of people have frowny faces right now, but you know what, at least they aren’t being lied to by nbnco now.

          put the details up on nbncos site when theres more concrete evidence of meeting an rfs sounds better to me. no hope is better than false hope. and when that hope does come, you will be able to rely on it

      • Hi Renai,

        I never said that he wasn’t right to update the maps, and I agree that he is, the problem I have is that he has been so black and white about it. If an area was/is in planning, then the map should reflect that instead of saying nothing.There’s no reason there can’t be more than 2 status categories.

      • Maybe the maps used to say that work had been done where it hadn’t, but it looks the opposite now. 9CVI (Inner North Canberra) has had Distribution Fibre run, but there’s nothing on the map for it … If Distribution Fibre in the ground doesn’t qualify as “Build Commenced”, what does?

        Now the map of ACT / 9CVI just shows 2 MDUs (1 as Available, 1 as Build Commenced) and curiously there is a small area surrounding the Civic Exchange – “Braddon” – listing as Build Commenced. Also, the type of build is now just called “Fixed Line” as opposed to “Fixed Wireless.” It doesn’t differentiate FTTH from FTTN. So .. perhaps Telstra is building an FTTN trial there now?

        • Or maybe it’s just the same 9CVI-01 FTTH as before .. I don’t have the old map for 9CVI.

  2. The old maps gave an excellent overview of the project and its progression the new maps remove suburbs like mine with NBNCo workers doing work in them OFF the MAP.

    The new maps only give users 1-2 months of lead time before the NBN will be available.

    Many areas where construction HAS commenced have been removed these changes are blatantly false and only seem to have happened to pretend the state of the NBN is worse than it really is.

    Ask NBNCo about 3FSR-01 because there has most definitely been fiber rolled out recently here

    • “The old maps gave an excellent overview of the project and its progression”

      Bwahahahahaha. Apologies, but I had to laugh at that.

      • Every Purple dot on that map used to be orange(1 year) and some even blue(1-2 years) they have all progressed to Purple (Active).

        I assumed wrongly that progression showed progress I guess I was mistaken.

          • Rather peeved, my parents are in Applecross, a major PoI.
            Work shows as in progress now, but NOT in the area where my parents lived.

            Last week the map showed them as due for connection by April 2014. (7 months away).

            They should, according to initial NBN progress / planning reports, have been connected by May this year.

            Now they are completely excised out.

            Boohoohoo….

          • I can’t give you evidence for all of a region but can give you some for 3FSR which is west of Melbourne a couple of months back they were pulling green fiber for NBN down Hyde Street Footscray

            Someone else has seen them pulling Fibre on Cowper St in Footscray

            Before the election someone contacted NBNCo and they said that contracts had been signed and was ready to commence full construction.

            There has been a lot of other work and some of it looks like NBN work but have not gone and asked but I will from now on.

          • An area? Wollongong.

            WLG-02 through to WLG-06 were ALL under construction, and are now gone from the map. When I see people doing the remediation work IN THE STREET I LIVE ON that tells me that construction has commenced.

            You can consider the old map to be wrong by all means, but this new one does no better at reflecting whats happening.

            As I’ve said elsewhere, my specific street was listed to go live in November. Thats… umm… lets to the math… ONE FRIKIN DAY AWAY.

            You cannot possibly tell me that something so close to the completion date hasnt started construction. the other Wollongong areas were all slated for completion in the next few months as well, and were all in various stages of preparation and as people said, that preparation is part of the construction process.

            What the map needs to better reflect is the stage of the process they are at – preparation, remedial, pull through, final build, RTC. This map simply changes the goalposts and is still a one measure fits all approach, which is the same allegation you make about the old one.

            Again, my region was scheduled to be completed some time in the next ~4 weeks. Explain that one to me.

            Then explain how its now faster and cheaper for me to get connected.

          • “When I see people doing the remediation work IN THE STREET I LIVE ON that tells me that construction has commenced.”

            NO. It tells you REMEDIATION work has commenced.

            “… my specific street was listed to go live in November. Thats… umm… lets to the math… ONE FRIKIN DAY AWAY.”

            This is precisely Turnbull’s point — that this does not reflect reality. Stop fooling yourself, my friend. Construction was not going to begin on your street tomorrow.

            I quote from an article I published in March:

            “The NBN is not coming to your house or business any time soon, and in the next five or so years Australia can expect the current disgraceful level of political infighting about the project and delays in its rollout to continue.”

          • Sorry I don’t have the time to investigate this matter further and If you are just going to sit there and ignore what 3 people on this site have said already then I can’t be bothered continuing.

          • Renai, you misunderstand what I’m saying. The rollout before considered the build process to be the entire 13 months. What makes changing that to only the last 2 weeks better?

            When I was talking about remediation being done, I was referring to that being part of that 13 month period of the entire project. My specific situation is far beyond just remediation. You asked for an area where this is happening, I gave you one.

            Where I live has had the green cables pulled through in very recent times. Just not as far down the street as my place – it stops 50m or so up the road, where there is a boundary separating WLG-01 from WLG-02. In WLG-02, every step has been completed up to that final build order stage, so we were literally two to 3 weeks away from being considered ‘premises passed’, and now theres nothing on the map to show where we are up to.

            Put it this way, if you were 12 months into a 13 month build of a house, with only the final connection of electricity to be done, wowhy would you consider the house not started?

            WLG-02 had a completion date of somewhere in the next 4 weeks. Why do you think that construction hasnt started, when it clearly has had everything done but the final connection?

            We might all be creating a storm in a teacup, and the rollout may still continue unchanged. But thats not the message we’re getting from Turnbull.

            I tell you what, courtesy of Telstra, and thanks to the lovely people over on whirlpool, heres a list of service areas for Wollongong, and their expected completion dates:

            State | Service . . Area | NBN . ID | NBN Ready Date
            NSW | Wollongong 2 CSA | 2COR-04| Jan 2014
            NSW | Wollongong 2 CSA | 2COR-05| Jan 2014
            NSW | Wollongong 2 CSA | 2COR-06| Mar 2014
            NSW | Wollongong 2 CSA | 2COR-07| Jan 2014
            NSW | Wollongong 2 CSA | 2COR-08| Apr 2014
            NSW | Wollongong 2 CSA | 2COR-11| Dec 2013
            NSW | Wollongong 2 CSA | 2DAP-01 | Nov 2013
            NSW | Wollongong 2 CSA | 2DAP-02 | Dec 2013
            NSW | Wollongong 2 CSA | 2DAP-03 | Dec 2013
            NSW | Wollongong 2 CSA | 2DAP-04 | Feb 2014
            NSW | Wollongong 2 CSA | 2DAP-05 | Dec 2013
            NSW | Wollongong 2 CSA | 2DAP-06 | Dec 2013
            NSW | Wollongong 2 CSA | 2WLG-01 | Sep 2013
            NSW | Wollongong 2 CSA | 2WLG-02 | Nov 2013
            NSW | Wollongong 2 CSA | 2WLG-03 | Jan 2014
            NSW | Wollongong 2 CSA | 2WLG-04 | Jan 2014
            NSW | Wollongong 2 CSA | 2WLG-05 | Feb 2014
            NSW | Wollongong 2 CSA | 2WLG-06 | Dec 2013

            See the 2WLG-01 completion date of Sep 13? Thats still on the map. The 2WLG-02 one directly below that (and the *-03 through *-06) were on the map until Wednesday. Oh, and notice all the Dapto ones? Most of them were having the NBN fiber installed as well. Last week.

            Dont tell me that a Nov 13 completion date isnt going to reflect that construction is almost finished because that is a bullshit attitude that does nothing to reflect why people are so pissed off right now. People all over Australia are reporting that the NBN contractors are still installing the green cables, yet their suburb isnt on the map anymore.

            That means one of two things. Either construction HAS stopped, or will very very soon, or Turnbull is satisfied that the new map is wrong, to lie about the Labor build. Again, you wanted a region, I’ve given you one.

          • … my specific street was listed to go live in November. Thats… umm… lets to the math… ONE FRIKIN DAY AWAY.”

            This is precisely Turnbull’s point — that this does not reflect reality. Stop fooling yourself, my friend. Construction was not going to begin on your street tomorrow.
            ___
            Not exact reality, but something was happening and maybe a setback of even 6 months to reflect reality but not wiped off the face of the earth as Turdbull has done – that is what is making many unhappy.

            I have gone from go live in Dec 2013 to non existent. They have been pulling cable all round my area for months. So I should just chuck all the “get ready for super fast NBN” pamphlets that have come in the mail in the bin then!!!

          • How is remediation not part of the construction process? It seems there is some ridiculous hair splitting going on here.

            Our area has been removed from the maps, even though we have 4 different contractors, with NBN logos all over them, working in the city for months. Ask the average person in the street, and they will tell you the NBN is being built. They now dont understand what these contractors are doing given that our previous “under construction” status has been removed from the map.
            You cant just start accounting for construction work half way through the process. That is what Turnbull wants to do, and it doesnt match what happens in the real world. I have never worked anywhere where a job is accounted for only from a mid point.

            The average person is rightly pissed about these changed. Our local paper and social media channels have had numerous posts from people upset we have been removed from the map, when construction is happening, and Turnbull promised construction started will be completed.

          • Renai, you seem to have this strange notion that planning and design is not counted as construction.

            Construction of houses start well before the first brick or concrete foundation is even laid. It is not possible to begin construction without doing the planning work.

          • Planning and design is not construction. That is why they are called different things. One takes place on paper. One takes place with shovels. Black does not equal white!

          • I don’t understand why we’re arguing about “construction commenced”. NBN Co has never used that term… it’s always been “Work commenced”…

          • I’ve had visionstream contractors in my area pushing blue fibre cables through ducts.

            Cheltenham VIC – formerly in the “construction commenced” 1 year camp.

            I guess pushing fibres down puts isn’t construction commenced, since you haven’t got your FTTP yet. (great logic).

          • Steve, you’re in exactly the same situation as me. To be specific, the rollout map shows construction as going along Ellen St, up Church St to Bank St, then along Bank St all the way to the beach. So it goes past the end of your street. 8 houses away…

            I’m in Church St, a little south of Ellen, so we’re basically neighbours for this. The boundary I listed above (Ellen -> Church -> Bank) is the boundary between WLG-01 and WLG-02, and because we’re south of that line, it seems we are currently in limbo. With an expected completion date of some time this month, we are damn close to being finished, which is the point I’m trying to get across to Renai.

            But the changes to the map SUGGEST (and I stress none of this is certain) that the build has been paused right now.

            So one of two things will happen. Either the map isnt complete, and the build actually continues, so we get that last sliver of work done soon, or we dont, and get stuffed around until Turnbull deems we’re ready for the last part.

          • Fiber is being laid across the Winthrop/Murdoch/Leeming/Willetton area of Perth (by people wearing NBNCo high-vis, no less) and the entire area is entirely unmarked.

          • Evidence: seen it with my own eyes talked to the subcontractors about what they were doing. In areas on the map where now ‘no work has commenced’. Since the election too.

  3. Note also the change in terminology, now it’s “Fixed line” instead of “Fibre”. My guess is that the coalition will use from now on the term “Fixed line” and declare that whatever “Fixed line” is, it’s all the same.

    Technology agnosticism, but not in the way one would like, right?

    It’s a nice way for them to sidestep the discussion between fibre and copper. Additionally, now they can just buy Telstra’s copper and/or HFC colour the whole map whatever colour and categorise it as “Fixed line” too. Or they can just claim that Telstra’s HFC is now a “Fixed line”-equivalent service with only the one RSP and just fill it in. It’s quite possible the start of a pretension that instead of an NBN Co rollout map that it’s now a broadband atlas.

    Additionally, I’m not so much concerned about the removals here themselves. It’s perfectly valid for them to do that if they have a change of plans in mind. What concern there is, however, is around transparency. Right now, there’s no transparency on this most accessible medium where the NBN ship will land next. None at all. How about at least restoring a category, if not today then maybe in the next week or two, on this map RFS (and by all means, feel free to skip this whole ‘construction commenced’ terminology thing) within 3 months/6 months or something along those lines? It’s billions and billions being spent on this and it’d be nice to at least have that little bit of info there.

    Again, transparency. Transparency? Transparency.

    I’ll be the first to call it, I guess. “Fixed line” is a sham. It’s the same as if you went to a computer store, gave them $700 and they brought you a computer that might be really awesome or some crappy Celeron.

    • But in all honesty, who knows if all this might just be a prelude for a sale to Telstra. Turnbull did express thoughts a while ago, effectively saying that that boat has sailed. But maybe now, being in government and all, he sees it differently and is now thinking that maybe a sale to Telstra should be viable after all.

      Declaring the NBN equivalent to something Telstra can offer, i.e. just calling it all “Fixed line” instead of using the term “Fibre” would be a vital semantic word shift.

      “Following this review, we have concluded that the best financial outcome for the taxpayer is, following negotiations with Telstra, to merge NBN Co with a new company created through Telstra’s structural separation that maintains the CAN, the HFC network and new developments. The government will be a 25% shareholder in this new company, etc., etc. For rural areas, there will no longer be a tax on city consumers, but instead this will take the form of a broadband subsidy scheme in the form of awards based on each area (and this new company will win almost all of them, no matter what Optus will try to do). This company will be rolling out FTTN, blah blah blah”, screw iiNet and TPG, screw rural Australia, blah blah blah, kill infrastructure investment beyond that because there’s a profit to be made, ACCC don’t you dare touch Telstra, don’t you know Telstra is the free market?

      • It will be like AT&T except if AT&T also owned Comcast and the government gave AT&T billions and billions to pretend to be two different companies, wink wink, nudge nudge, and no one had any incentive to improve infrastructure beyond an initial taxpayer-subsidised push.

  4. Telstra’s construction contractors cant even remediate Telstra’s own legacy they hid from the public and Turnballs reckons Telstra is most experienced for the construction.
    Telstra hasn’t constructed anything for 20 years or more, that’s why we are still 10 years behind other advanced nations.
    There is no mandate for FTTN but there definitely is one for the original plan of FTTH.

  5. Well I was nowhere near a colour on the old map so I feel kind of the same.. still crappy :p
    fttp / fttn whatever sick of it :(
    Anyway thanks again Renai for keeping us up to date with what’s going on in the nbn news.

  6. How remarkably transparent this government is. If you want to know anything Labor did, you will get information galore. Ask them what they are doing, that’s a different story. Blue books not being released, Bishop barring people from a conference on aid, Tony Abbott running away from reporters, Morrison’s limited information on refugees.

    Can’t wait for the transparency when the negotiation with Telstra take place, or when questions are asked about the state of copper. You can be sure that all problems with have been caused by Labor and all success (if any) will the government’s marvelous work.

    Never forget: Labor bad, Coalition great. (isn’t that right Coalition’s groupies?)

  7. Same $#!* different day. And so it continues

    1 Turnbull lying once again
    2. Labor and Media not holding lying Turnbull and Abbott to account.
    3. Australian Public get left with second rate $h!te, rather than what is best for australias long term benefit and infrastructure.
    4. No Public outrage, and with such inaction and no outrage, the self interest of politicians (on both sides) gets put ahead of Australia’s best interests.

    A complete lack of intestinal fortitude on so many levels, Australia should be ashamed of itself.
    Also about time the media took a good hard look at themselves, allowing such slime even consider this debacle.

    Renai”s article is spot on……Renai may be writing about this debacle but one man is not enough.

  8. They could be playing a ruse, they will remove them all and they will magically reappear since the contracts have been signed, and they’ll claim the credit saying labor never did anything.

    • I suspect these map updates are to set a new baseline for premises under construction, which will be referenced by the current 60 day report into the state of the NBN under Labor.
      Many of those areas that are under construction but have just disappeared off the maps may appear again early in 2014, and then MT and the Libs will be able to claim that there was a dramatic upswing in construction numbers under their leadership vs under Labor govt.
      The main stream media will lap it up and report on these new rollout figures.

  9. My issue is the maps were previously trying to serve 2 purposes; show work completed/in progress to date AND planned work. The accuracy might not have been fantastic, but it was at least indicative. The change makes it more “accurate”, but completely drops the second, and arguably more valuable, purpose of planned work over the coming months/years.

  10. “Under Construction”?

    Kariong, NSW. In the weeks before the election there were teams of high-vis clad men in white vans pulling fibre through the pits. I stopped to query whether it was NBN fibre they were pulling, and they confirmed it, with the caveat: “But it’s only the early stages!”

    If you don’t define pulling fibres (even if it’s just backhaul) as “rollout commenced”, then you have some very strange understanding of the english language.

  11. What ever happened to digital equality and furthering Australia’s future. The digital devide is uppon us (Note: light sarcasm). But seriously, the ideals around the NBN were to bring highspeed broadband to Australian homes and businesses to allow us to further what is obviously a huge part of the worlds future. I’m not saying this needs to happen at all costs, however it’s been pointed out by Delimiter and some of the readers that fiber is without doubt where we will end up.

    Where I work, contracted to a APS department, they allow select employees to work from home. One of the conditions is FTTP. Not wireless, not ADSL, not FTTN; FTTP.

    There are many reasons why we need the NBN sooner, but there are far more for doing FTTP to meet our future needs.

  12. NBN has been laying green cable for months in Dubbo (from first-hand sightings over this period) and its completely blank on the map now. This is concerning for those residents. Obviously its not a problem if the maps are updated correctly at the end of November, but its a huge problem if the map suddenly shows FTTN instead of FTTP. This is the real concern.

  13. To quote Malcolm Turnbull…”Under the Labor regime, they were basically being misled.”

    Under the Liberal regime, saying that they will achieve a MINIMUM 25 Mbps by Dec 2016 is beyond misleading. It is out right lies. The real figure will be about 8-10 Mbps.

  14. Interestingly South Brisbane is now blank on the map. FTTP construction finished long ago, we’ve been using it for a long time. I’ve been waiting for it to become NBN FTTP, which is not likely to take much actual construction. Sooooo, when do we get on the NBN now?

    • We will all get fast broadband sooner and cheaper, we were told by this government, when they were in opposition…

      Seems not, what a surprise.

  15. Simply adding two more markers “planning” and “remediation” to maps would solve most if not all of the concerns over what is now a pretty retarded situation.

    I’m sorry – but under normal project timelines you don’t just start reporting arbitrarily half way through.

    Sure, the old maps were a bit “hopeful” perhaps, but to swing the door the other way and simply wipe half the in-build locations off the map is just as bad.

    Really, add two more stage markers. Job done. Of course that then shows NBNco is actually doing something and given the amount of political momentum Turnbull has built trying to destroy, it’s a little bit obvious at this point.

    Renai – I agree the old maps weren’t great. The new ones are basically a fabrication based on an arbitrary point in the build where, suddenly, it’s all on again. You don’t suddenly get told your house is in build when second fix is happening.

    It’s not really that complicated.

    • +1000
      What the armchair critics fail to understand is that the greater portion of this construction iceberg isn’t visible on the surface.

  16. How hard is it to switch from FTTP to FTTN?
    What I suspect is happening is that Turnbull wants to take ownership & full credit for all the construction/work commenced areas he’s removed from the maps.
    NBN has already done the hard yards of planning, remediation & laying fibre into many of those areas but not the final run into actual premises.
    Quite likely he’ll now simply slip in a node here & there then pat himself on the back & claim he’s done it so much cheaper & faster using FTTN.

  17. Next week, surprise, surprise the Minister has approved 150 000 more sites. More than likely those which were next on the list already.

    Thank you Minister, thank you. The difference you have already made is amazing. What else do you have in store for us? Can’t wait to see.

    • No
      The ones taken off the list where much of the work has been done, then claim his super new L NP team is far superior to those Labor incompetents.
      Allied with all the other witch hunts and investigations, more about whitewashing the B.S News Ltd, Jones and the LNP have been spreading like the pox
      See we are honest professionals with ethics that tell it like it is, why the government investigations validate us completely

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