The full list of Sydney suburbs stuck in NBN limbo

Despite promises the NBN will be completed next year, more than 120 Aussie suburbs, including Newtown and Parramatta, don’t even have a date for its arrival. SEE THE LIST

Despite promises the National Broadband Network will be completed next year, documents show thousands of Australian households and businesses don’t even have a date for its arrival.

More than 120 Australian suburbs are still in NBN limbo, with the company behind the $51 billion infrastructure project unable to reveal when it will be ready to deliver broadband in the areas.

And the towns in question are not beyond the black stump — many are in our capital cities.

The news comes just days before NBN Co is due to release its 2020-2023 Corporate Plan, and after chief executive Stephen Rue last month promised the project was “on schedule”.

Telstra Wholesale NBN planning documents list 123 suburbs across New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia under “dummy” dates as they have received no guidance from NBN Co on a delivery time frame.

More than 120 Australian suburbs are still in NBN limbo.

It’s understood the areas were to be connected to the NBN using existing pay-TV or hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) cables, but the infrastructure is not yet up to an acceptable standard.

An NBN Co spokeswoman said “work” would continue in the 123 suburbs as part of an HFC optimisation program and services would be “progressively released to market”.

MORE NEWS

NBN lies: How consumers are being ‘bullied’

Optus attacks Telstra over NBN claims

Why I’m ‘unready’ for the NBN

Customers lose as NBN fails to hit speed targets

“Existing telephone and broadband services will remain in place until optimisation works are completed and residents can order a retail service over the NBN access network,” she said in a statement.

Thousands of Australian households and businesses don’t even have a date for the NBN’s arrival.

The lack of NBN delivery dates follows extended delays on the sale of NBN services over HFC connections, starting in November 2017 when then CEO Bill Morrow halted the rollout due to technical problems and slow, unreliable connections.

Telecommunications analyst Paul Budde said the latest NBN problem showed the project continued to struggle with old infrastructure that was not up to the task.

“They’ve had problems with HFC and they still can’t get it right,” he said.

“If you start with the wrong infrastructure, you’re always trying to catch up. This is a problem that will be with us for the next decade.”

But Mr Budde said homeowners in the listed suburbs would not be the only people left out of the NBN’s immediate rollout as he expected more homes with problematic NBN connections would be forced to wait years for connections or remediation.

NBN CEO Stephen Rue last month promised the project was “on schedule”. Picture: Aaron Francis

“There are still hundreds of thousands of connections that are not satisfactory and they are being put in the too-hard basket,” he said. “They will only start looking at them when (they deem) the rollout to be completed.”

RMIT network engineering associate professor Mark Gregory said a growing number of so-called “service class zero” premises where NBN could not be delivered was likely to delay its true completion date by up to two years.

“We’re really talking about, at best, as mid to late 2022 before you could say the NBN is fully built and operational, and even then it will be with caveats,” he warned.

NBN Co is due to launch its plan for the next three years on Friday.

NSW SUBURBS IN NBN LIMBO

Beacon Hill

Brookvale

Burwood

Chatswood

Clyde

Concord

Croydon

Dundas Valley

Eastwood

Ermington

Erskineville

Gordon

Granville

Kangaroo Point

Killara

Lane Cove North

Lane Cove West

Leichhardt

Melrose Park

Menai

Newtown

North Parramatta

North Rocks

North Strathfield

Northmead

Parramatta

Randwick

Rooty Hill

Seven Hills

Sylvania

Wahroonga

Waitara

Warrawee

West Ryde

Westmead

Originally published as The full list of Sydney suburbs stuck in NBN limbo