NBN speeds promised by Coalition cannot be guaranteed: Ziggy Switkowski

Updated

The head of the National Broadband Network has told a Senate committee that speed guarantees have "lost currency".

NBN Co chief executive Ziggy Switkowski has faced a grilling at the Sydney hearing, which is focusing on the Government's guarantee of minimum speeds.

Before the election the Coalition promised download speeds of between 25 and 100 megabits per second to be available to Australians by 2016.

But the strategic review of the NBN has found it will not get halfway to meeting its targets.

The strategic review, conducted by the NBN Co, also found the Government's proposed fibre-to-the-node (FttN) network would require about $12 billion more than estimated in the Coalition's April 2013 policy.

The original figures were announced under Labor and Dr Switkowski has previously criticised the way they were calculated.

Under questioning from former communications minister Stephen Conroy, Dr Zwitkowski said he was not interested in promises on the NBN.

"I do not buy questions that demand us to guarantee anything," he said.

"It's clear that after four years of NBN, guarantees have lost currency."

Senator Conroy wanted to know why Dr Switkowski was at odds with the Prime Minister and the Communications Minister.

"The mandate was ... [to] have a look at the business plan and deliver it against the terms of reference - which it's done - so references to what other people may or may not have promised is out," Dr Switkowski said.

Senator Conroy responded by saying the Prime Minister was "not just anybody" and asked Dr Switkowski if he was delivering on Tony Abbott's promise.

"One of the problems I have found in reviewing the past is there's been a too quick take-up of words like 'guarantee'," Dr Switkowski said.

"This is a strategic review. This outlines what a particular scenario may deliver and we're doing it with high confidence."

Senator Conroy responded: "Well Mr Abbott's the one whose guarantee I'm asking you to keep, but you're not prepared to commit to meet the Prime Minister of Australia's commitment to the Australian public before the election."

It was a cautious appearance by Dr Switkowski, given the highly political nature of the NBN and Senator Conroy's role as its architect.

But under intense questioning, Dr Switkowski refused to guarantee anything and resisted opportunities to criticise the NBN's previous management, while reminding the committee about the role of the strategic review.

"It'll be transformed into a corporate plan and a budget that is several months of work and, at that time, I firmly believe we have to go back and stress test all of the assumptions and challenge ourselves to do better," Dr Switkowski said.

Dr Switkowski, a former chief executive of Telstra and Optus, also confirmed there was no way to future-proof the NBN from new technologies.

"We have modelled and concluded that it's economically more efficient to upgrade over time rather than attempt to build a future-proof network in a field where fast-changing technology is the norm," he said.

"And best practice internationally is to implement a rolling annual plan with a semi-annual review of annual network footprint and performance, changes in the technologies and being mindful of shifts in consumer needs."

The Senate committee hearing is continuing and will take evidence from accounting firms involved in the NBN review, including Deloitte, KordaMentha and the Boston Consulting Group.

Global headhunters Egon Zehnder will also be questioned about key appointments made to the NBN since the federal election.

Speaking after the analysis was unveiled, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said jobs would have to be cut following downgrades to the company's profit forecasts.

Topics: internet-technology, information-and-communication, government-and-politics, federal-government, company-news, business-economics-and-finance, telecommunications, nsw, australia

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