NBN construction to reach 3.5 million premises by mid-2015

Construction of NBN links to more than 3.5 million premises will be either completed or under construction by mid-2015, under a fibre rollout plan announced by the Australian federal government.

Construction of the rollout will begin 1 April 2012.

The announcement “provides certainty to Australians who have been waiting to hear when they will get access to this critical infrastructure”, a joint press release from Julia Gillard and Stephen Conroy read.

“We know that unless we upgrade to the NBN, our outdated system will choke Australia’s economy in the future, slowing our growth and putting Australia behind the rest of the world,” it continued.

Telecommunications analyst Paul Budde had a similarly sunny take on the announcement.

“With all the foundations now in place, NBN Co is ready to roll,” Budde said.

“This does not mean that there will not be hiccups going forward, but the industry as a whole is confident that all the necessary work has been done to allow for a fairly smooth rollout. This took some time, but with an eye on the future it is time well spent,” he said.

According to Budde, the “importance of the NBN and the social and economic benefits that will flow from it are also becoming clearer”.

“Earlier this week, AGL said that thanks to the National Broadband Network it will be able to build the largest wind farm in Australia, near Silverton in western NSW. It was access to the NBN that made this project economically viable, as it saved the company between $30 and $40 million in communications costs,” he said.

But not all camps are happy with the announcement. According to the Victorian state government, the Gillard Government has “dudded” the state in with its plans for the rollout.

The Victorian Technology Minister, Gordon Rich-Phillips, said the state had received less than 20% of the program funding, despite being home to a quarter of Australia’s population.

Rich-Phillips said that the rollout clearly favoured the Labor-held states of South Australia, Tasmania and ACT.

“Although South Australia has just 7.3% of national population, it is receiving 9.2% of the funding. Tasmania, which represents just 2.3% of population, is receiving 5.9% of the program funding,” Rich-Phillips said.

“The Gillard Government is quite clearly funnelling money into these states to prop up struggling Labor administrations,” he said.

Rich-Phillips also voiced concerns regarding the rollout and regional centres.

“While I am pleased our calls for a greater level of regional and rural construction have been heard, I am concerned about the concentration of the rollout in a small number of regional centres,” he said.

“Major regional centres such as Mildura, Warrnambool, Wangaratta and Bairnsdale have been overlooked as have many smaller communities with inadequate services,” he said.