And shortly after NBN Co announced it was spending $620 million to build its own satellites, Mr Turnbull argued there was no need for NBN Co to do so when there was bandwidth on commercial satellites available for lease.

"There are Australian companies, there's one Australian company in particular NewSat ... which was in the press today which provides satellite services to the United States Defence Department in the Middle East, in Afghanistan and so forth so they're presumably pretty capable at what they're doing. Anyway, they've been brushed, they don't get a look in here. There is no need for the NBN to own this infrastructure itself..." Mr Turnbull said on February 8, 2012.

Now, NBN Co is just months away from launching the first of two Ka-band satellites while NewSat has never launched its own and the half-finished satellites may be sold off by receivers looking to recover millions of dollars. Ka-band satellites provide better internet services.

Turnbull's office did not respond to requests for comment.

NBN Co's first satellite is due to launch later this year providing internet relief for Australians living in regional areas, particularly those who missed out on its popular interim satellite products. The satellite has capacity to deliver speeds of 25 megabits per second download speeds and 5 Mbps upload.