Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN) continues to fall behind in hitting its network buildout deadlines amidst a transition in the government's leadership and environmental delays.
In July, NBN Co. the company responsible for rolling out and operating the network, forecast it would pass 318,700 premises by the end of September. As of Oct. 7, the NBN had only passed 227,454 premises, the majority of which are multidwelling units (MDUs) which can't access or order NBN services.
One area that has been affected by the delays is Tasmania.
Visionstream, the company tasked with rolling out the network in the state, said that asbestos issues have held up network construction. Earlier this month, NBN Co. said it only passed 32,001 premises with the network.
On a broader perspective, the NBN Co. and the network are going through a new transition.
The company recently named Telstra's former CEO Ziggy Switkowski as its new executive chairman as part of a broader realignment that Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull is conducting of NBN's board.
Besides realigning NBN Co.'s board, the new government leaders have touted the idea of replacing the current fiber to the home (FTTH) network strategy with what they say is a lower-cost fiber to the node (FTTN) hybrid fiber/copper architecture.
For more:
- Telecompaper has this article (sub req.)
- The Australian Financial Review has this article
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