NBN Co reveals 100,000 premises to miss deadline, 500,000 homes delayed, but calls project ‘on track’

Half a million households won’t be able to use the NBN before its June 2020 deadline, and 100,000 won’t receive it at all, but NBN Co says the project is “on track”.

About 100,000 Australian homes and businesses would not be connected to the National Broadband Network by its June 2020 deadline, the company behind the rollout revealed today, after they were deemed “too complex” to be hooked up in time.

An additional 500,000 households would not be able to actually use the NBN by its “completion” date — it would arrive in their suburb too late to be connected to homes — according to documents issued by NBN Co.

The company also revealed the cost of connecting properties to the $51 billion project had risen and it would not bring in more cash than it was spending until 2023 — a year later than initially forecast.

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NBN Co Stephen Rue unveiled the findings in the NBN’s 2020-2023 Corporate Plan in Sydney today and said he was still “confident we’ll complete the build on time”.

Despite his announcement, a footnote on the fourth page of the Corporate Plan said the completion would exclude “a small proportion of premises defined as ‘complex connections’.” That small number was “approximately 100,000”.

Mr Rue said the delay was due to “factors outside of NBN’s control” including properties that were difficult to access or heritage-listed, and assured Australians affected by the delay that they would receive an NBN connection at a later date.

“Our construction delivery plan includes a very small number of premises that require bespoke solutions and we’ll be taking a considered approach to complete these,” he said.

“I assure you they are firmly in our sights and we will deliver to deliver them as soon as practical.”

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The new Corporate Plan — the first to detail plans beyond its 2020 deadline — also showed the company expected 11.5 million properties would be “ready to connect” by June next year, with seven million expected to be using the network.

But that figure was down by 500,000 properties on previous forecasts due to what NBN Co called a “timing issue around deployment” that would see many areas made “ready to connect” just before the June 30 deadline.

The cost of connecting properties to the NBN also rose over the past year, with the greatest jump a rise of $532 per home for fixed wireless connections.

As a result, NBN Co now expects to be cash flow positive by 2023, rather than 2022 as forecast last year.

Despite looking beyond its completion date, Mr Rue also ruled out plans to upgrade the project to include more fibre connections.

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“This plan is about completing the build. There is still a lot of work to do,” he told News Corp Australia.

“Let’s get the build completed, let’s get our customer experience up, let’s get people getting their health, their education, their small business driven, and then let’s continue to look at the needs of the community.

“As technology evolves and as consumer demand changes, that’s the time in which we can consider anything else.”

Shadow Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the Corporate Plan showed the NBN was “clearly struggling with the complexity of multiple technology rollouts”.

But Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said the NBN Co should be commended for plans to connect 11.5 million premises and should now focus on how to best “achieve national economic and social objectives”.

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Originally published as NBN Co reveals 100,000 premises to miss deadline, 500,000 homes delayed, but calls project ‘on track’