High-cost connections
A TASMANIAN property which cost $91,196 to connect to the National Broadband Network was one of the most expensive in the history of the seven-year rollout.
The property in the battler suburb of Ravenswood near Launceston was in a remote area.
“There was a network shortfall which required remediation work to resolve,” an NBN spokesman said.
“The fix required substantial civil work and multiple revisits by the technician.’’
It was one of nine Tasmania fibre to the premises connections (FTTP) in the top 16 most expensive in the multibilliondollar NBN rollout so far.
Other expensive rollouts occurred at the Invermay Bowling Club $86,533, at Kingston ($55,766), Relbia ($44,157, $34,608 and $34,923), Riverside ($39,166 and $34,734) and West Launceston ($38,527).
The Federal Government has since started a different rollout technology known as fibre to the node (FTTN) after the 2013 election win.
Under the FTTN system, optic fibre is connected to a node in the street and existing copper wire connects to the house.
NBN spokesman Russell Kelly said the rollout had increased by 122 per cent in the two years since December 2015 with the change in technology, with 258,307 homes and businesses ready to connect.
He said 149,391 premises had been activated with a number of technologies including FTTP, FTTN, fixed wireless and satellite — up from 54,915 in December 2015.
‘Tasmania is planned to be completed by 2018, making it the first state to be finished,” he said.
He said 97 per cent of the estimated 263,000 premises had been connected.
The NBN Co under the Labor government awarded a $300 million rollout contract for Tasmania to Visionstream which had almost ground to a halt with allegations contractors were not being paid and problems with asbestos.
The contract was renegotiated by the incoming communications minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Consumer group Digital Tasmania said the rollout had changed from a majority fibre rollout to a bastardised mix of six to seven technologies.
Spokesman Andrew Connor, a former Labor candidate, said: “The pre-emptive response to the Four Corners program [aired last night] by NBN Co and the Federal Government to detail the most expensive fibre rollouts for individual premises, many of which are in Tasmania, and call for restrictions on competition is a desperate move to save face on their current rollout mess.
“The NBN is a basic infrastructure project run by a government-owned company, its first priority should be to successfully connect all premises in Australia to reliable broadband services ahead of turning a profit. ”