NATIONAL Broadband Network head Mike Quigley appears today before the joint parliamentary committee on the NBN's rollout, so perhaps he can explain what value is being delivered by the $36 billion taxpayer-backed project. Quigley will have to not only justify the headline cost of the project but the limited and costly progress to date.

His first progress report submitted to the committee as executive chairman of NBN Co revealed that after two years and despite spending more than $800 million, only 18,000 homes had been passed with fibre-optic cable and a mere 600 connected. In contrast to the fanfare that accompanies parts of the NBN being turned on, the critical progress report was released two weeks ago, late in the evening, deliberately missing news deadlines. Why? Because it's clear from the report that the NBN is not shaping up as a good news story.

In Tasmania, where the network was first switched on, the take-up rate is less than 15 per cent. Worse, the cost of deploying what little fibre has been rolled out is double the estimate contained in NBN Co's first corporate plan. That November 2010 plan estimated it would cost $2300 to pass each household with fibre but the progress report suggests it is costing $4700 with connection adding a further $1000 per household.

No one, of course, is pointing out that the NBN's costs could explode. Why would they when NBN Co's 900 employees are averaging more than $150,000 a year? And the gravy train doesn't stop there. Consultants, lawyers and IT contractors are doing even better. In the 12 months to June, NBN Co spent $60m on consultants and a whopping $42m on legal costs while $220m has been spent or committed to a billing and operational support system even though NBN Co will be dealing with at most only a couple of hundred customers. And this cost could double.

You forgot to say, they have just obtained permission to access telstra's underground system. Very selective.

All company's have infrastructure. It's cheaper to build 2 houses side by side, rather than 2 blocks apart. This bloke is a war monger. I read that at 2.00pm today.

Surprise, surprise, suprise, not really. The current Labor circus only employs clowns, no jugglers, no acrobats, just clowns

They are jugglers, sonofgloin. Just that they keep dropping their balls :)

...Well SM... I have been a consistent critic of the NBN fantasy since its inception. Just at the point Australia succeeds in installing copper wire service nation wide, Julias three ringed circus began to dismantle the lot! I made the comment in the past, I believe the drug squad need to swoop on parliament house; what other explanation could account for the total catastrophe the reputation of this Government decision making has earned itself!

...Just as an aside, more proof of the dislocated thinking of JG comes from her belief that compensation for pensioners, given to balance the rise in E/L charges destined to occur with the "manic" carbon tax implementation, will assist those pensioners: No it wont, Just as FHOG increased the price of real estate, CT compensation will only succeed in raising rents of pensioners to the same tune as the compensation. Watch this square! It has already become a complaint out here in the big wide world of everyday reality, where the most of us live.

P.S.

These connection costs still don't cover the supply, installation and maintenance of battery back up which is about $1000 to supply and install and requires regular maintenance. This is not required with a copper network.

The first order of business for a Coalition government needs to be to suspend all contracts entered into by NBN co and abolish the whole mess.

Wireless is going to make it obsolete anyway, even without the debacle that is inevitable from Gillard with anything more complicated than holding hands with Tim.

Let those who think they need fibre pay for it and the rest can choose technology that's appropriate. Central planning on the supply-side only works if the planners are competent and even then it rarely leads to good outcomes. Whenever I hear about NBN Co, I'm always reminded of Bob Hoskins's ducting repair man from Central Services in Gillaim's brilliant movie Brazil.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil_%28film%29

I'm sure when Gillard watched it she thought it was a training film...

I try to contribute to every new thread.
After all it is about all sides and all views.
Looked then walked away last night.
but no,worth while saying my view.
A dissenting one, NBN is an achievement.
Worth while.
Will it waste as much as Tiny Tony's 70 billion black hole?
Leave you to it SM

What are your reasons for believing the NBN debacle is worthwhile, Belly?

No need to have panic attacks, you have till 2020 to live through yet.

Having been in communications industry for 44 years, I have to laugh at all the convoluted arguements 4 and against NBN. It's like arguing which is better at washing clothes - soap or 'lux'. All this BS is meaningless if you find out that the problem with the internet is not the symptom [ speed ] but the desease [server ] Just the reverse of the electrical grid. We have the infrastructure to handle 100MBS [ well 85% of it anyway ]to the consumer. What we don't have is the SERVERS to deliver it. 10MBS is just fine for the average joe [ If I could ever get it on my co-axial direct connection to the NAT server ] but as more and more demand is put on the server, everyone see's a drop in speed. What we need is MORE SERVERS not more street cable. Instead of just data, the servers have to handle TV and what-ever as well and co-axial does that just fine [capacity of 100MBS] but if you have a car that won't pull a caravan, isn't it cheaper to drop a more powerfull motor in your car than junk the whole car and buy a new one [ provided the rest of the car was BUILT to take the power anyway ?]
When I have a connection that supports 100MBS [ coaxial] and a promise that I'll get at max 10MBS [?] from the SERVER !! - and I NEVER see more that 350KBS, what the hell does that tell you ?

pepper, coax CAN deliver 100Mbps, but in most cases it doesn't for all sorts of reasons that aren't just related to the gateway server. Corrosion, as well as other water-related issues like condensation in the repeaters is the big one, as well as the network topology chosen, which uses "nodes" to which lots of users may be connected.

Then there is the fact that a lot of servers limit upstream bandwidth for various reasons. One solution to that is to use a download accelerator that opens several download channels simultaneously and requests different bits of the file at the same time, combining them afterward. Torrents often reach close to the capacity of the cable as well.

If you routinely see a low but consistent download bandwidth, the chances are you're on a somewhat congested node.

This New Social engineering adventure by Labor is heading towards a $60bn tax payer funded tag.

When Labor loses power, the coalition will have to stop the gravy train.