NBN Co has hit back following a media report today that the national broadband network is facing rising costs and delays.
| An internal progress report has been obtained by Fairfax Media, with Fairfax reporting that, by the company’s own assessment, the project has fallen two-thirds short of its benchmark construction timetable, while connection costs to each house and business are also rising.
Fairfax has reported that according to the February 19 report, the “final design” process for connections, necessary before construction commences, is running far behind schedule, At the date of the report 1,402,909 premises should have been approved, however the figure was 662,665, Fairfax reported, and while NBN Co has achieved 29,005 fibre-to-the-node “construction completions”, its internally budgeted target for this period was 94,273. Last year, upon launch of its fibre-to-the-node product, NBN Co stated it expected a simpler installation process would see it able to activate end users “much faster than on other broadband technologies”. NBN Co has hit back at the report, rejecting “claims that the company is at risk of not meeting its targets”. NBN Co stated that it has met or exceeded every key target for six quarters in a row. “The company is on track to meet or exceed its full-year targets of 2.6 million homes ready-for-service, approximately one million homes using the network, and more than $300 million in revenue,” NBN Co stated. NBN Co has not commented specifically on the figures in the internal progress report. “We will not be drawn on alleged internal documents, we report quarterly and our results are audited,” NBN Co stated. |
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