The Greens are pursuing legal options to have Parliament write-down the National Broadband Network and ease the pressure on the government-owned business to make returns on the $49.5 billion infrastructure project.

The Turnbull government has publicly refused to consider writing down the value of the NBN and ease its commercial restraints, although many believe the public is now being softened up for such an event. NBN is forced to make an internal rate of return in order to pay for the near $50 billion project and keep it off the budget.

However, in order to make enough money to pay for the project, NBN's wholesale charges are much higher than what retail service providers (RSPs) are paying for existing ADSL and HFC cable services. RSPs are largely competing on price and are therefore not buying enough capacity to meet consumer speed expectations, especially during peak usage times between 7pm and 11pm.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young believes a write-down would be best for consumers. Alex Ellinghausen

"Rolling out the NBN has put too much pressure on recovering NBNCo's costs rather than providing an essential service to Australians," Greens communications spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

"We need to stop thinking of the internet as a profit-making endeavour and start treating it as an important utility like water or electricity."