NBN announces halt of HFC connections effective immediately due to poor service

EXPECTING to get access to the NBN imminently? You might have to be patient as the company halts connections which rely on old pay TV networks.

IF YOU’RE all set for the NBN to become available, you might be waiting a little longer.

The company building the nationwide wholesale broadband network has announced it will delay the rollout of a particular access technology due to the high number of issues experienced by end-users.

NBN boss Bill Morrow announced this afternoon the company has halted connections for customers in its Hybrid Coaxial-Fibre (HFC) footprint until it can rectify problems experienced by some users.

The HFC technology — which is also known as the pay TV network — is slated to connect nearly three million homes and businesses by the end of the rollout.

“As we ramp up, we can see issues with each technology that we need to recalibrate,” Mr Morrow said. But HFC connections have proven particularly problematic.

“Effective immediately we are going to delay connections on HFC,” he said.

As a result, a delay of schedule of an expected six to nine months will occur for most of the remaining HFC premises who are waiting to switch onto the NBN network via the technology.

Mr Morrow said the problems experienced by certain end-users on the HFC network were not speed related and were due to issues with the spectrum band allocated to the NBN over the HFC network which it currently shares with Foxtel and Telstra.

NBN Co. said advanced “network testing and remediation” were needed to improve the service for end-users. Its initial focus will be on improving services for the 370,000 users already connected to HFC.

Those who will have their connection delayed, will still have access to their current broadband connection with Optus or Telstra. “This does not, should not, cause them any harm,” Mr Morrow said.

He also said the company does not believe it will push back the expected 2020 completion date of the project.

Despite the ostensibly bad news for the “technology agnostic” approach of the rollout, NBN Co. is bending over backwards to frame it as a positive step which demonstrates its commitment to the experience of end-users.

“This action demonstrated we’re putting customer experience above all else,” Mr Morrow said.

“There are so many elements of this industry transformation that we cannot directly control, but we are serious about improving that which we can.”

If you want to check if you will be affected by the delays, the company said it will amend information on its rollout map to provide better data on how the freeze will impact those anticipating an HFC connection.