NBN on track to meet 2013 plan

30 Oct 2012, 9:33 pm   -   Source: AAP

NBN Co boss Mike Quigley says the rollout of the NBN is on track to meet its 2013 targets as it gathers speed in new housing estates.

NBN Co boss Mike Quigley says the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN) remains on schedule as it gathers speed in new housing estates.

Mr Quigley says the builder of the $37.4 billion high-speed network is on track to pass 286,000 homes and businesses by June 2013 as stated in its corporate plan released in August.

"The committee can be assured that we're on track to hit the corporate plan number, I'm prepared to back that," Mr Quigley told a joint parliamentary hearing in Canberra on Tuesday.

NBN Co chief operating officer Ralph Steffens said the NBN's designs had been slowed down as it had to update inaccurate data on pits and ducts in the Telstra network.

"Telstra is well under way in remediating the infrastructure to make it usable for us," Mr Steffens said.

Mr Steffens said he was confident NBN Co's construction partners would have accurate information to ensure the 286,000 premises would be passed by June 2013, with 43,000 homes and businesses connected to the network by then.

Mr Quigley said connections in two of the first trial sites, Kiama in NSW and Willunga in South Australia, were ahead of original forecasts.

"Kiama is now very close to 44 per cent uptake and Willunga not far behind it," Mr Quigley said.

"We are seeing some quite substantial take ups without any steps being taken yet to shut down the copper (line)."

The government-owned enterprise said its backlog of providing fixed fibre cable connections in new housing estates had fallen from 3800 premises at the end of September to 3200 a month later.

Mr Quigley said the number of lots passed in new housing estates had basically doubled from 10,054 at June 30 to 19,730 three months later.

Premises connected to the NBN in new housing estates had risen from around 500 at June 30 to 1824 to the end of September while the forecast for October 31 was 2500, he said.

"We are now really starting to ramp up," Mr Quigley said.

"It's a huge job but we are getting on top of it."

NBN Co is to deliver fibre-optic high-speed broadband cable to 93 per cent of homes, schools and businesses across Australia by 2021, with the rest to be provided by fixed-wireless and satellite services.

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