Australia's NBN rollout delayed

Dylan Bushell-Embling
25 Mar 2013
00:00

NBN Co has confirmed that construction on Australia's A$37 billion ($38.6 billion) National Broadband Network has been delayed by around three months.

The state-owned company revealed it expects to miss its target of passing 314,000 premises with fiber by June.

NBN Co instead now forecasts passing between 190,000 and 220,000 premises by this date, and reach the original target around three months later than planned. But the company said all other targets - including the 2021 completion date – remain in place.

NBN Co CEO Mike Quigley said the company is taking “immediate action” to address the delay.

“We are accountable for the delay and are disappointed it has occurred,” he said. Quigley attributed the delay to a lack of available contract workers on the ground.

“This lack of mobilization, combined with some of our contractors recently lowering their forecasts, has led us to make the judgement call to reforecast our end-of-year projections.”

He said NBN Co has assumed responsibility for managing the rollout in the Northern Territory. The region's rollout had previously been contracted to Syntheo, which will now focus on Western Australia and South Australia.

Separately, NBN Co announced the appointment of Siobhan McKenna as its new chairman. McKenna has been a member of the NBN board for the past four years.

The fate of the NBN project, which aims to deliver FTTH to 93% of the Australian population, is currently in doubt. The opposition Coalition wants to scrap the project in favor of a cheaper mix of fiber and copper, and has a substantial lead in opinion polls in the lead-up to the September election.

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