National Broadband Network (NBN) users may need to bear additional costs to access the network if a leaked proposal to make service providers bear the costs for network equipment is approved.



IT News reported that a leaked discussion paper from the NBN Co showed the company was considering making internet service providers responsible for the costs of installing some equipment, such as modems. Users might have to pay these costs if the proposal was approved.



The company does not currently require customers to pay for installation, but under the proposal modem installation would be left for homeowners to do themselves or to contractors.



An NBN spokesman said the paper did not reflect NBN policy, and there was no proposal for users to be directly charged for a connection.



"But we would consider setting up a professional paid-for installation field force for additional in-home wiring if RSPs (Retail Service Providers) wanted it," the spokesman said.



The rollout of the network has dogged successive Labor and Coalition governments. Tasmanian Liberal leader Will Hodgman said the Coalition’s NBN policy could cost his party the state election, in an embarrassing pre-interview gaffe in February.



Paul Fletcher, parliamentary secretary to the minister for communications, Malcolm Turnbull, had earlier said at an IT forum that the Coalition’s cost estimate of the previous Labor government’s NBN plan “may have been a little high.”

