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August 1st, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Public confidence in the National Broadband Network (NBN) could be undermined if the next corporate plan for the AU$36 billion project doesn’t offer firmer targets, coalition MPs and an industry expert have said.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is expected this week to release the 2012 three-year plan, which will update figures in the inaugural plan to be released by network builder NBN Co in 2010.
NBN Co and the Federal Government say assumptions in the 2010 paper have changed because of the eight months it took to settle a deal with Telstra, a competition watchdog decision on points of interconnect and complications around new housing estates.
But Senator Conroy said on Tuesday that the NBN roll-out, a 10-year project to cover about 12 million homes, was not a “quick fix for one election”.
While he would not pre-empt details of the plan, the minister said that, “There’s a very pleasing story to come from that”.
NBN Co — which aims to deliver high-speed optic fibre broadband cable to 93 per cent of homes, schools and business across Australia by 2021 — currently only reports the number of households in an area where construction has started.
It has been criticised by a multi-party parliamentary committee for not detailing the number of homes passed by fibre, homes connected and services in operation.
Also unclear are the costs of extending the planned fibre roll-out, and NBN Co’s processes for communities in rural and remote areas.
Industry analyst Paul Budde said the “soft” figures in the 2010 plan needed to be firmed up.
“There is a positive attitude towards it, but there is scepticism in the market about the reality,” he told AAP.
“The importance of this plan is it should provide people with confidence that they [NBN Co] are going all right.”
“We will only get confidence if there is some real data.”
Budde said that there were also broader political consequences.
“This is one of the few things this government has, if it has any chance of returning to government,” he said.
“If they don’t get this right, then [they can] forget about it.”
Budde said the 2012 plan should also include reference to the broader social and economic benefits of the NBN, including its use in health, education and business.
Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull said that the fact there were only 11,000 active fibre connections as of May, against a forecast 151,000 by the end of June this year, showed it had been a “colossal failure”.
Opposition regional communications spokesman Luke Hartsuyker said the new plan needed to explain guidelines for small towns.
While the original plan promised that towns of 1000 “people” or more would receive fibre, it appeared NBN Co was only committed to delivering it to towns of 1000 “premises” or more.
Premises not covered by the fibre network will get fixed wireless or satellite services. The government has, however, been working on a plan that will enable towns to pay the price difference to be connected to fibre. The far-west Queensland towns of Barcoo and Diamantina shires want to build 700km of optic fibre at a cost of up to AU$22 million. Having committed $5.5 million to doing so, they are still looking for the rest of the money.
As of May, there were 7300 active satellite connections on an interim system and 52 fixed wireless connections.
Independent MP Rob Oakeshott, who chairs the parliament’s NBN committee, said the plan should carry more detailed information than the original.
“The more information, the better — this is a critical build for the nation for the long term,” he told AAP.
However, he intends to keep a close eye on any potential for “wasted” public spending and anti-competitiveness issues impacting the retail telecommunications sector.
Suzanne Tindal contributed to this article.
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