This week we’ll take a look at NBN Co’s promises for the country’s new fibre network over the next three years. Will it reach you by 2015?
The big news this week was communications minister Stephen Conroy and NBN Co CEO Mike Quigley updating us on the roll-out progress of the network. The pair said that 758,000 premises would be passed by the end of the year, with that number topping 3.5 million by mid-2015. As for right now, the NBN reaches 305,000 premises.
We were also told that the cost of the network has risen by 1.4 per cent. That doesn’t sound like much, but when you’re talking about Australia’s largest infrastructure investment, it’s no picnic. It’s gone up by $1.4 billion, but Conroy says it’s not a huge issue. Why? Simply because the cost will be offset by an increase in projected revenue over the life of the network.
The comms minister also had beef with mainstream media this week, equating publications like The Australian Financial Review with flat-earthers. A bit harsh in my view but Conroy’s never been tight-lipped about which publications he does and doesn’t like.
There was a huge amount of stuff covered beyond this which you can read in the liveblog.
Meanwhile, Angus over at tackled a mutant handful of NBN myths which you’d do well to read.
Finally, Telstra released its full-year results this week, and one of the things it covered, beyond the amount of customers it has, was the plan to invest funds in a major piece of NBN infrastructure.