The boss of Australia's second largest telecommunications company has criticised the $50 billion National Broadband Network as a "ticking time bomb", while rejecting industry calls for a write-down in favour of upgrading the network.
Despite this, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims said at a telecommunications industry summit in Sydney on Monday that the cost of basic NBN plans had become an affordability issue for those on lower incomes because the charges were more than the plans some customers were on before the rollout.
Telco sources said the margins on the lower plans were smaller than those on the mid-tier products since the NBN Co had provided price promotions and bundles for the 50Mbps and 100Mbps products, which made other plans less profitable to sell. An Optus spokeswoman said the pricing "reflects NBN wholesale pricing" and the telco had a cheaper home wireless broadband plan.
"They [fibre-to-the-node customers] are complaining about ... what's going to happen in three years' time when they need not 10Mbps or 20Mbps [but] 100Mbps," he said. These connections are fibre to a node in a street and are then copper to the home, which can affect speed.
JennieDuke Well don't TonyAbbottMHR your legacy continues... nbnfail fttnworks
JennieDuke Yea. NBN is an appalling joke thanks to those stupid gronks called LNP.
JennieDuke Its going to need to be revamped more or less as soon as its finished. Thanks LNP. Do a job right the first time despite what that evil kent Rupert wants! I noticed the prick uses streaming services now too. Tax him and use the revenue to fix it!!
JennieDuke Oh, wow what a surprise. The Liberal's version of the NBN which they announced at a Murdoch owned news studio to be built with outdated tech that they themselves called 'fraudband' isn't doing so well. Who could have seen that coming?!
JennieDuke The NBN is perhaps the biggest stuff-up of all from this government, even if it’s not talked about that much anymore. As PM, Tony Abbott managed to make it half as good for twice the price. That takes a special kind of talent.......