The NBN discussion in November was shaped by the release of several core documents and their discussion in Senate hearings.

One repeating theme was NBN Co's work in the Melton, Victoria area, where the September release of documents suggesting fibre had been rolled out more cheaply previously spawned a firestorm within NBN Co. NBN Co executives were ultimately pressed to recant some of its earlier testimony and conceded that not only had they purchased but not used licenses for a new rollout methodology but that they would potentially use it again in the future.

There were revelations that the body producing the recent NBN Cost-Benefit Analysis explicitly instructed an analytics subcontractor to ignore potentially significant business revenues that would have supported the case for FTTP, and instead adopted an arbitrary and superficial method that the government said further supported NBN Co's new multi technology mix (MTM).

NBN Co released "broad principles" for its rollout technology determinations, confirming that there would be no more fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) added to the rollout beyond what is already planned or underway. Fibre to the node (FTTN) will instead become the default deployment technology, even though the company still has not finalised the agreement with Telstra that will be necessary to deliver widespread FTTN.

NBN Co was also talking up its plans for the Telstra and Optus HFC networks even though it admitted it has yet to see any detailed information about those networks' locations or capabilities. Equipment provider Arris believes the NBN Co strategy for HFC can work, while Labor communications spokesperson Jason Clare admitted that no matter how the Coalition's NBN shapes up it will be hard to return to Labor's original FTTP strategy.

News emerged that NBN Co had approached global financial institutions to prepare for an $11.6 billion debt raising, although support for splitting the company - which has been recommended by many as part of its eventual privatisation - it was weighing up its plans to counter the competitive threat posed by TPG and its fibre-to-the-basement (FTTB) rollout, saying first that it wouldn't seek to directly shadow TPG's rollout but then admitting that it would have no compunctions about doing just that and - contrary to earlier technical advice saying it would present technical issues - installing equipment in buildings where TPG had already installed equipment.

The Department of Communications conceded that its series of NBN reviews has now consumed over $2 million in costs, even as the company released its 2014-2017 Corporate Plan and buried it in so many caveats that NBN Co is unprepared to stand by any of its forecasts past the middle of 2015. The corporate plan did confirm that the ultimate rollout would include around 25 per cent FTTP connections, although NBN Co confirmed that fibre would be available at a cost to those who want it and didn't get it first time around.

Even as NBN Co marked the commencement of construction work on its 1 millionth premises, the release of a draft v13 of the company's never-released Corporate Plan 2013-2016 showed that the previous NBN Co board had adjusted for the challenges the rollout had previously faced, and that it was prepared to implement the same architectural changes as NBN Co has subsequently implemented to speed up its rollout.

NBN Co's court battle with and TPG was postponed again, while NBN Co faced problems with another partner after Nextgen Networks stopped taking new connection orders for its NBN Virtual Connect product after the company said NBN Co technical changes would force it to invest heavily to change its own infrastructure. NBN Co announced it would cut its connectivity virtual circuit charges by 12.5 per cent but pricing changes were set to do little for technical issues such as those reported by national ISP iiNet, whose CEO accused Telstra of failing to adequately maintain the copper network it has ceded to NBN Co - affecting iiNet's ability to deliver services and resolve issues.

Speaking of Telstra's copper networks, an FOI request revealed that Telstra and the Department of Communications had warned communications minister Malcolm Turnbull that claims about the speed of FTTN services should be tempered with a disclaimer that real-world results may vary, but the warning was ignored.

Further reading

Foxtel and the NBN - threat or opportunity? (Business Spectator)

NBN tweaks won't break the Telstra stranglehold (Technology Spectator)

One week, two corporate plans, three strained NBN Co execs (ZDNet)

Time to end the NBN spin cycle (Business Spectator)

TPG should outbid NBN Co to buy the Optus HFC network (ZDNet)