The rollout of the national broadband network (NBN) is gaining momentum but is slower than it should be, NBN Co chairman Ziggy Switkowski says.
The underlying momentum of the rollout had picked up since the current federal government changed the project's strategy, Dr Switkowski told a Committee for Economic Development of Australia lunch.
"We're doing more now than has ever been done before, but it's still not anywhere near fast enough," he said.
NBN Co's rollout of infrastructure enabling access to high-speed broadband was passing 6,000 to 7,000 premises per week, he said.
That's a quarter of what it needed to be, Dr Switkowski said.
Given the magnitude of the project, it would still take another six years to complete, he said.
"There will be some people at the front end of the queue - communities, suburbs - and obviously there will be others at the end of the queue," he said.
"Not everybody will be instantly satisfied even after we complete negotiations, ramp up the machine and get the business rules out."
Dr Switkowsi also said a rollout by telco TPG of its own high-speed fibre broadband to 500,000 units and businesses in capital cities would affect NBN Co, but won't be fatal.
The competition regulator recently cleared TPG's rollout, but Dr Switkowski said affected 500,000 customers out of 10 million.
"Is it fatal? No. Will it be meaningful over a long period of time? Probably not," he said.
Dr Switkowski said participants in the rollout of high-speed broadband services were still going through an "untidy early phase", where parties were still trying to understand what their particular roles should be.
Share
