New leaked docs appear to show further FTTN delays

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news The Coalition’s controversial Multi-Technology Mix approach to the NBN has taken another body blow, with a fresh set of leaked documents from inside the NBN company reportedly showing that its Fibre to the Node rollout is comprehensively missing its targets.

This morning the Financial Review published two key documents from inside the NBN company. The first is the NBN company’s Integrated Deployment Plan. This document — versions of which have been seen by Delimiter — represents a comprehensive view of the NBN company’s construction activities and forecasts.

The second document is the NBN company’s regular ‘Ready for Service’ update, which the NBN company sends to retail ISPs so they know where their customers can buy NBN services, and when.

According to analysis conducted by the Financial Review (we recommend you click here for the full article), the documents show that “all 40 FTTN areas have been delayed”, with “none” being ready for service by last Friday as planned.

The documents are the second set of major leaks showing that the NBN company’s FTTN rollout is substantially delayed.

In early March, Delimiter and a number of other media outlets published internal NBN documents in which the company’s chief network engineer explicitly stated that its FTTN rollout was categorically behind track, with much of the issue being problems getting electric power to the neighbourhood ‘nodes’ required for the rollout model.

At the time, Communications Minister Mitch Fifield repeatedly refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of evidence contained in leaked internal documentation.

In addition, NBN chief executive Bill Morrow also poured cold water on the leaks.

In testimony to the Senate Select Committee on the NBN in mid-February, Morrow said that the NBN company had in the month prior to that date averaged over 35,000 FTTN premises deployed. The company only needs to deploy some 23,000 per week, which Morrow said showed that the company was actually ahead of its targets.

At the time, Morrow acknowledged there had been “sub-optimal processes” during some of the early FTTN rollout, but that bottleneck had since been resolved, and in any case the delays would not have held up the whole FTTN rollout as they were only in one part of the FTTN build zone, and represented only one step out of 14 needed to get a FTTN deployed to a premise.

“The metrics under each [step] have thresholds higher than what is needed to meet the corporate plan. We do this to allow for any unexpected challenges, as is prudent in a newly established process. This contingency management is something that any large project management organisation will do and is exactly what was happening here,” said Morrow at the time.

Image credit: Office of Mitch Fifield

101 COMMENTS

    • A part of the blame should be apportioned to Labor. If they were in anyway a competent at politics the Liberals wouldn’t have won and the FTTP rollout would still be happening. But hey, at least they’re making the most of these leaks, and tearing the Liberals a new one. Plus their strategy for cleaning up Turnbull’s mess and righting the NBN ship if the re-win government is widely known and prosecuted… LOL!!!

      • “A part of the blame should be apportioned to Labor. If they were in anyway a competent at politics the Liberals wouldn’t have won and the FTTP rollout would still be happening.”

        Politics has no place in an engineering solution.

        And guess who politicised it? The current Coalition government neanderthals (who describe themselves as the “adults” in a delicious ironic twist, as they first described broadband as “entertainment” who couldn’t see past their own natural resources fix), first in Opposition (remember they called the NBN policy in 2007 a waste of time when they didn’t have a policy themselves), then when in power.

        Now Labor doesn’t get a free pass here either, they politicised it as well (not nearly as rabidly or negatively as the Coalition IMO), but their saving grace was that they actually stumbled upon a broadband policy that was good for Australia.

        • their saving grace was that they actually stumbled upon a broadband policy that was good for Australia.

          Indeed Murdoch, they quite rightly listened to the experts advice.

      • A part of the blame should be apportioned to Labor. If they were in anyway a competent at politics the Liberals wouldn’t have won and the FTTP rollout would still be happening.

        Which is like blaming KFC for the food poisoning you got at McDonald’s because you were too stupid to realise the advert McDonalds put in the paper said “Our burgers come with free food poisoning”

        • There was a story a couple of weeks ago about some lady that is now boycotting Woolies because she bought the wrong milk at Coles and Woolies wouldnt exchange it.

          • Sounds about right. If it were a few years back I would have just assumed it was a story from the USA. Today Australians are proving they are just as retarded as Americans.

          • Unfortunately Hubert, the Reality is, some Australians are even more gullible than Americans…*winkwink*

      • The gullible who believe in fairies & Santa, swallowed Tony Abbott’s lies hook line and sinker and voted LNP, they are to blame. If it only affected them I’d say serves you right, wear it. Vote labor at the elections to get the NBN built properly.

          • Devoid

            Fix the mess caused by the MTM and coalition $70B and counting lol.

            How sooner is it going to be with all these delays

          • JasonK, That needs to be qualified with a “Try to fix”

            Unlike Reality, I personally don’t blindly believe any party is beyond reproach, I think it is likely that there isn’t a lot they can do in the short term to fix the issues, aside from changing away from FTTN, then trying to migrate the FTTN and HFC down the track.

            Either way we are doomed by this idiocy to pay more.

          • Indeed Woolfe, there is only so much they can fix. Considering the unnecessary damage the coalition clowns have done I wouldn’t expect a miracle either.

          • + 1 Max

            @ alain (i.e. Max’s gullible),

            Obviously there’s an election in the air. As we now see the reverse blame game happening. Normally it’s blame the last mob for what happened, now it’s blame the other mob for what could happen.

            *sigh*

            But I see you’ve stopped demanding the others for a “solution” since it was pointed out (you’re welcome) that by demanding a solution you the messenger, are in fact admitting there’s a MTM/FRAUDBAND/NODAFAIL problem… :)

            Well, of course those with two eyes can plainly see there’s a fucking MTM problem. In fact there’s a complete fuck up so far (many years) behind the promised schedule and costing as much as $70B (according to the Coalition’s own former Treasurer – so almost 2.5 times) the promised cost of the cheaper/faster ready to roll out.. err, LIE…

            So feel free to return to “solution” because it is indeed a “solution” which is required to fix the FttN/FRAUDBAND/NODAFAIL joke, you gullibly (thanks again Max nice work) swallowed.

            You’re welcome again…

          • “What would Putin do?”

            Be pragmatic and make a tough decision like he did with Syria. Go with what works even if it costs you your pride. Do what it takes to get a good economy going in spite of temperamental mining. The only logical way forward is to a knowledge-based economy, which would benefit greatly from facilitating infrastructure….

        • I usually don’t vote, but this time I’m following the Labor ‘how to vote’ card. This trumps any baggage the parties carry, no matter how valid and is the most important issue in this era.

      • A part of the blame should be apportioned to Labor.

        If you are of the LPA denomination, then all blame is to be apportioned to Labor. It is all their fault after all….unless there is something good that comes from it, then it was all “our” idea except for the bad bit….heck, we could have written it ourselves and everything!

  1. So what this is showing is what we’ve said all along. A project of this size is complicated, and is always going to have some teething issues. Whether it was FttP, or (now) FttN, delays are inevitable.

    One more thing the Liberals mislead us on, with their claims they could avoid leaning errors.

  2. Where I live, the area is marked as ‘Build underway’ for FTTN with no other FTTN builds in the region yet (Sunshine Coast, Qld). There were several node cabinets installed several weeks ago but no action since then, until the other day when there was a worker with an ‘Australian FibreOptic Solutions’ van laying fibre for the nearest node cabinet.

    So there’s *some* action. I don’t know whether there’s power going to the cabinets yet, though there are overhead power lines running right above them.

  3. Nothing to see here for the majority of people who thought it would be delayed.

    Off Topic: About how long does it take for an area to go from the “NBN is coming” leaflet to signup in a FTTN area?

  4. C’mon chaps, leave the poor nbn folk alone, no one could have possibly predicted all of these issues, right?

    Oh wait, those of us with even the tiniest amount of Telco experience saw this coming before the last election and said so, many times on this and other sites!!!

  5. So …. when NBNCo reports accurately back in the day (i.e. the FTTH rollout) it’s dragged through the mud for it, yet when documents leak to the public from the current iteration of NBNCo (rather than being reported publicly), there’s barely a whisper (with the notable exception of this and a small amount of other media) about it.

    Is it my imagination or is this whole perspective a bit a$$ about?

    Stay under the radar and maybe people won’t notice? Possibly, would be my guess.

    This, apparently, is the definition of transparency, where documents have to be leaked before the public knows anything about it.

    • I wouldn’t necessarily say NBN Co reported “accurately back in the day”, but certainly any bad news was dragged through the News Limited press.

      Less so now…oddly enough…

      • I guess you could say that accuracy is a moving target, but there was very few leaked documents. Primarily because if you asked for something, you’d get it, or get a legitimate reason why not.

        While the “why nots” did include CiC reasons, the current blanket CiC is difficult to swallow. There’s very little engagement with nbn these days that isn’t on their terms, and when it isn’t (i.e. Senate Committee’s), out trots the CiC reason.

        So is the definition of transparency now CiC for everything they don’t wish to answer? I respect CiC information certainly, but there’s a difference between leaving select CiC information out as demonstrated by NBNCo previously. This was when they answered a lot more questions, and when they quoted CiC reasons, they usually provided a little more information about why CiC applied in that particular case.

        These days it’s just “CiC”, and that’s the end of it. Quite frustrating.

        • Very little information is legitimately “CiC”. The overwhelming majority of “secret” information – across the entire government (including defence) – is secret simply because the government wants to control the narrative.

          • Actually in defence ‘Secret’ means just that and men in dark suits have been known to appear!

        • These days it’s just “CiC”, and that’s the end of it. Quite frustrating.

          The couldn’t possible comment about “on copper” matters…

  6. Oh dear more bad news for the copper fanboy knuckle draggers, this news must be devastating for them. They wanted their just a bit faster than ADSL2+ speeds RIGHT NOW but GimpCo has let them down yet again :-(

    • Unfortunately HC, it isn’t devastating for them because they will excuse, nay talk-up and fully support any and every set back and talk complete BS in doing so (as we have clearly witnessed over the years) due to their ideological subservience to the cause.

      The fact that they support FRAUDBAND/NODAFAIL, in the first place is testament to this.

      Funny though, with every set back, cost blow out, upgrade etc, their hopeless cause of supporting FRAUDBAND/NODAFAIL, becomes even sillier and FttP is proven, time and time again, to have been the correct avenue to have taken.

      But wait for FttDp and then we’ll soon see (as they are already hinting at…lol) the 2003 copper relics drop FRAUDBAND/NODAFAIL quicker than they dropped old Tones & Joe…lol

      • it isn’t devastating for them because they will excuse, nay talk-up and fully support any and every set back and talk complete BS in doing so

        Of course they will excuse it Rizz, no argument there, they are proud and can’t admit they were wrong. However that doesn’t mean they aren’t crying themselves to sleep every night. We all know they are.

      • They’re lucky FttB is doing so well and is Cu based so they can lump those figures in to hide the shortfalls.

        • It’s good the Coalition NBN Co changed the FTTB model, the Labor NBN Co lumped their FTTB in with FTTP, didn’t help with deployment figures did it?

          That’s what going for a MtM model and not locked into a one infrastructure mindset can do for rollout speed and cost.

          • @ alain.

            Yes and the “Coaition’s (since you insist on forever making everything politically us vs. them)” shitty mish mash plan is doing so well too (cough) daily fuck-ups, “only” 4 years behind and more than double the cost (according to the Coalition’s previous Treasurer) in relation to the pre-election promises…

            Tell us again why you support greatly inferior infrastructure for you, me and all Aussies, even with such mismanaged and disgraceful outcomes?

            Oh that’s right!

            You’re welcome.

          • R0ninX3ph,

            Labor wasn’t using FTTB, this is the second time you’ve bandied around this bollocks.

            So no apartment buildings were connected using MDU’s under the Labor NBN Co, and the connection figures were not included in the FTTP figures?

          • “So no apartment buildings were connected using MDU’s under the Labor NBN Co, and the connection figures were not included in the FTTP figures?”

            Labor were hard and fast on FTTP for 93%, that included for MDUs.

            That was a bad idea, and even Conroy admitted eventually it was a bad idea to not go with FTTB for MDUs.

            However, FTTB was never part of the Labor rollout, so stop saying it was.

          • Labor NBN Co lumped their FTTB in with FTTP

            You’re an ignoramus. Labor did no FttB. You have been told this many times before…

  7. Anyone got a non Dropbox link to the documents…. Some of us corporates don’t like Dropbox much…

  8. Thinking about selling my services. We have decided to move out of the apartment we are in, this week Contractors has starting wire the complex up for FttP this will be the 3rd time I’ve move out of a place a couple of months before NBN FTTP was available.

  9. So, time to settle in to a comfy chair and wait for “Baghdad Reality” to show up telling us that it’s not official information, everything is OK and they are actually exceeding their targets!!!

    /popcorn

    • I think we have to say his name three times while looking into a mirror to get him to appear… right?

      Or is that Candyman?

      • I think we have to say his name three times while looking into a mirror to get him to appear… right?

        And wave an abacus around…oh, wait, that was Richard!

  10. Does anyone else think Mitch looks like he’s trying to hold one in in that pic? I hope he made it to the portaloo once it was taken!

  11. Good news! No seriously. I am in an area marked for NBN build to start sometime this year. Hopefully all these delays continue so that I get FTTdp or FTTP rather then FTTN.

    • my area went live feb 19, reading all the whirlpool posts for my suburb there is nothing but fuck ups, ranging from 30+ days for a tech visit to be connected to nbn technicians to sort it out problems already at nodes and so on.

      and my house is just about built so i hope its all sorted before i connect lol

  12. From the Fin Review article.

    “This is the seventh major leak from NBN Co in just over four months. Turnbull’s second-rate fibre to the node is a complete failure and everyone seems to know it except Malcolm,” Mr Clare said.

    ok so you keep saying over and over and over, so Mr Clare when are you announcing all FTTN rollouts will stop even if it means paying out outstanding build contracts and FTTP started again in its place.

    You keep banging on about the MtM problems while offering zero solutions, or are you secretly hoping you don’t actually win Government this year?

    • Well consider all the secret squirrel the NBN has been doing how can they from a good policy with out seeing the true damage that has been caused but the coalition or would you like him to reqeat that fully costed $29B complete this year slogan faster cheaper more affordable

      • R0ninX3ph,

        Weird place to try to address Jason Clare. Why would he comment on Delimiter about Labor’s policy?

        In a discussion about leaked documents of which Clare made a comment sticking the boot into FTTN, this is a ‘weird place’ to highlight what he said?

        So who appointed you as his apologist and protector?

        • “So who appointed you as his apologist and protector?”

          ROFLMFAO

          Coming from you… who will contradict himself completely and perpetually (HFC failed is now lucrative HFC, is one of many idiotic contradictions), will flat out lie, and sell (whoops has sold) his soul to the conservative politic, that’s fucking GOLD…

          Nice work… before roads there were no roads.

          You’re welcome

        • I’m not his apologist or protector, but why would Jason Clare post here? And what is the point of posting addressing him, when there is no proof he would read your comment, when you already have a direct line of being able to contact him.

          Twitter.

          So, instead of commenting here hoping he might read your comment, why not just ask him yourself?

          If he doesn’t reply on Twitter, then you’ve got some ammunition to use, if he does, you get an answer, literally win-win for you, right?

          • I’m not asking him to post here, the next statement after making this one:

            Turnbull’s second-rate fibre to the node is a complete failure

            ….is to say that if it is a ‘complete failure’ state that a Labor NBN Co will refuse to roll FTTN out at all.

            Not hard is it?

            You and other rebadged FTTdp fan boys seem to believe in the tooth fairy, that is ‘someone’ will fix the Coalition MtM but let’s not bother Labor about how they are going to do it, and keep making poor excuses on their behalf as to why they are silent beyond cheap and easy MtM bashing.

          • So devoid a $27B blowout from $29B to up to $56B lol is not a failure.

            4 years added not 2016 anymore it’s 2020 is not a complete failure.

            30K in 7 months for FTTN is real fast correct leak shows months added to delays is not a complete failure after all the back haul work has been done for them.

            Building an upto $56B network that’s only worth $27B is not a complete failure.

            Building a network that requires to be upgraded within 5 years after it complete not a complete failure.

            Ahh but your poor excuse is but they are “revised”. So why are you asking for a policy when your happy that it gets “revised”.

          • Oh the ever reliable Rizz sock puppet has decided to hit the diversion button.

            It seems last gasp FTTP fan boys don’t mind Labor remaining silent on NBN policy because they are afraid of what they might hear, as always, in denial, the backbone with personal abuse of the MtM bashers argument.

          • So devoid your the one hitting the diversion button as I am talking about the failures.

            Looks like you don’t want to hear the failures of the coalition failures for the NBN from the personal attack I hit the mark.

            Or can you show me in that pre election policy again where it claimed there NBN would cost $56B and complete by 2020.

            But the you are the sock puppet with Turnbull hand so far up your **** that all you can talk about is bullshit.

          • “You and other rebadged FTTdp fan boys seem to believe in the tooth fairy, that is ‘someone’ will fix the Coalition MtM but let’s not bother Labor about how they are going to do it, and keep making poor excuses on their behalf as to why they are silent beyond cheap and easy MtM bashing.”

            You are a fucking prat.

            I would also love to know how its going to be fixed, but I don’t come on completely unrelated sites to Labor and rant about “when are Labor going to announce what they’re going to do”, if I cared as much as you seem to do, I would ASK LABOR.

            You’re a fucking moron, seriously…. Go ask Labor if you want to know so badly what their response is, I can’t be bothered asking them, because they will eventually release their policy, likely in the next few weeks because the election now has a date.

            I never saw you complaining when the Coalition were harping on and on for years without a viable opposing policy, but when Labor don’t produce theirs, the world is ending? Please promptly piss off.

            Go ask Labor if you want to know their policy, otherwise kindly shut… the.. fuck… up… you… cretin.

          • @ alain,

            To suit one narrative (such as here) you demand to know Labor’s details now. But at another narrative previously stated Labor’s detail can come later.

            So which is it?

            Do you actually have any morals, ethics and decency? Rhetorical we all know that answer.

            Psst that’s your cue to spinelessly disappear, again.

            You’re welcome

          • And…

            Spinelessly disappears it is…ROFL.

            Typically and exactly as prophesied, alain (Houdini) tries to escape from the inescapable truths yet again.. PRICELESS

            Oh alain (Houdini) you can run, but you can’t hide… even in a suitcase, handcuffed and thrown over Niagra falls – but hey let’s give it a shot.

            *jokes*

            You’re welcome

    • “saying over and over and over”
      Now which government have I heard that from before…
      Oh yes.

      • Both of them…. LOL…

        I laugh everytime a politician repeats a catchphrase more than once…

    • @ alain,

      “You keep banging on about the MtM problems while offering zero solutions, or are you secretly hoping you don’t actually win Government this year?”

      Wow it’s as if you copy/pasted my comment to you circa 2013 (but changed FttP for MTM of course)… because I tell you what.

      So did you?

      Regardless glad you again realise and ADMIT that a “solution” is required for the complete MTM fuck up.

      You’re welcome

    • ok so you keep saying over and over and over, so Mr Clare when are you announcing all FTTN rollouts will stop even if it means paying out outstanding build contracts and FTTP started again in its place.

      Exactly, and he can tell us what he going to do about the debt and deficit disaster while he’s at it!! At least Tony was able to stop the bits!!

    • OK, everyone knows it but Malcolm and you.

      I am Labor has at least a “fully costed plan”.

        • Indeed I agree alain.

          It would however, actually be funnier, if it wasn’t so sadly accurate.

          You’re welcome

        • Well, really what can they plan for? The “open and transparent” NBN releases near zero information. At least Turnbull had information to work from for his “fully costed plan”, even then his “fully costed plan” turned out to be the back of the napkin guesstimate most on Delimiter claimed it to be.

          • I wouldn’t call it back of a napkin as that what the copper knuckle draggers used for Conroy FTTP. I think the best description for Turnbull “fully costed plan” as a brain fart at best.

          • C’mon guys we all know MTM wasn’t concocted on the back of a napkin it was of course skillfully created on the back of one of those fandoogled new telegrams.

            Anyhoo…

            Now this is, I swear to someone’s god (or to appease the boot licking minions here… I swear to Menzies and/or JWH and/or the all mighty fucking $ or whatever, these clowns bow down to… all of the above, done)…

            I emailed Helen Coonan, when she was Minister for Comms, to ask her about her broadband ideas/policies … and seriously… I had to wait for the Minister of comms to reply to me via snail mail…

            Now that may have been protocol in 2006/7, to reply via snail mail, but that was in the vintage days, waaaay back when FttN was of course FRAUDBAND. So we have of course as an intelligent nations progressed greatly since then, to…

            FRAUDBAND.

            WTF… my faux pas. Sorry guys.

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