Getting jiggy with Ziggy wasn’t the only NBN biggie this week. What else happened with the National Broadband Network (NBN)?
There’s no denying that the appointment of Ziggy Switkowksi as chair (and temporary CEO) of NBN Co was the big news, even if we’d been expecting it for some time. Let’s enjoy that GIF again, shall we?
Switkowski’s NBN Co team will soon be hard at work on the strategic review of how the NBN should proceed. One document which might give us some additional insights into that process is the briefing book given to Malcolm Turnbull when he took office. There’s a crowdfunded freedom-of-information campaign to try and make that happen. While the funding goal has been reached, we expect many of the juicier elements of the document will still end up with big ‘REDACTED’ cross-outs everywhere.
While that uncertainty remains, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) still wants to finalise the special access undertaking which allows it to intervene if there are pricing disputes between NBN Co and individual providers. Current NBN resellers are acting on an interim agreement which expires this month, and ACCC chair Rod Sims told the AFR that it was continuing to work to finalise the undertaking, despite the strong chance of technological change meaning more modifications might be needed in the future. “It’s best that we get on with it,” he told the paper. Quite.
Elsewhere, Telstra celebrated the reunion of workers who helped build the first coaxial cable between Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra by releasing photos of the build. It looks like hard work, and modern NBN building won’t be much easier.