NBN rollout behind target, claims yet another leaked report

Leaks, schmeaks, says CFO Stephen Rue. By 2020 everything will be wonderful

The company charged with building and operating Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN) is denying a Fairfax media report that its multi-technology model (MTM) rollout is stalling.

Over the weekend, The Sydney Morning Herald got its hands on a leaked nbn^TM internal document dated February 19 suggesting a slow-down.

According to the Fairfax story, the last process before a home is declared “ready for service” is running more than 740,000 premises behind the 1.4 million target for February.

For the same period, the Fairfax story says, the 29,005 fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) “construction completions” are also way behind an “internally budgeted target” of more than 94,000 by the same date.

That brought nbn^TM CFO Stephen Rue to the airwaves with the four-fledged argument that : everything is fine; the company is confident it will hit its targets; management is on top of problems, because that's what proper managers do, and; the company doesn't comment on leaked reports.

Rue told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's AM radio current affairs program the company “has met or exceeded every key target for the past six quarters in a row”.

Vulture South notes, with no surprise whatever, that the “last six quarters” date from the first quarter commenced after then communications minister Malcolm Turnbull issued his April 2014 MTM edict.

Rue told AM the existence of such a document is hardly surprising since “we review on a weekly basis how we're going against our targets”, adding that the company is “very comfortable” that it's exceeding those targets.

Rue said such reviews always “identify risks” so that the company can manage them, and promised the program “we will meet not only this year's target but we will also meet the AU$49 billion peak funding target”.

Rue also said the company more than doubled its activations in 2015, and of its current 1.8 million ready-for-service premises, 800,000 are now connected.

One difficulty the leak identifies is that nodes need electricity, and that means power companies have to come to the party to keep the rollout on track. Power companies don't typically have spare 240V power outlets in the street, so a node requires at least a cable and, if the retail network in a street is fully-loaded, perhaps a new transformer.

Rue declined to talk about power supply to the ABC.

Nor did he, using the "no comment on leaks" fig leaf, directly address the Fairfax story's allegations. ®