Malcolm Turnbull warns of 'daunting challenges' to get NBN rollout back on track

Updated

Federal Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has warned it will be a "daunting challenge" to get the National Broadband Network back on track.

NBN Co is in the middle of a 60-day review ordered shortly after the Coalition won government in September.

The review's outcome is becoming a headache not just for Mr Turnbull but the entire telecommunications industry, which is looking for certainty after the instability of the Labor years.

When the review ends on December 31, industry stakeholders will want a clear answer on whether the NBN will be delivered in a fashion that works, not just for the Coalition, but for them.

While Labor's fibre-to-the-home rollout plan was costed at $44 billion, the Coalition's fibre-to-the-street-corner plan using Telstra's copper wire to the premises is more modest at around $29 billion.

But anything is possible given Mr Turnbull's comments earlier this year that all options will be assessed during the review.

Speaking at a conference in Sydney to update the industry on whether the NBN would be delivered on time and on budget, Mr Turnbull said Labor had no business undertaking such a massive financial project with underwriting from the private sector.

Political issues aside, Mr Turnbull is now warning of "bumps in the road" in the rollout of "a colossal undertaking" which is now "a daunting challenge".

It is easy to get the impression that Mr Turnbull is carefully managing expectations about how and when the NBN will eventually be rolled out.

"Make no mistake, to get this project back on track and completed in a reasonable time frame at a reasonable cost is a daunting challenge," he said.

Participants at "The NBN Rebooted" conference hosted by the Communications Alliance would have been disappointed at the no show of NBN Co's new executive chairman Ziggy Switkowski, who was billed earlier as keynote speaker.

A spokesman for Mr Turnbull said Dr Switkowski had never accepted the invitation to speak and that his listing on the conference agenda was mischievous.

It is understood the Dr Switkowski - in the past accessible to journalists including this reporter - has agreed to keep a low profile in line with the communications strategy of the Coalition.

And on the theme of public commentary in relation to the NBN, which was almost a daily occurrence during the Rudd-Gillard governments - Mr Turnbull said he had ordered NBN Co and anyone related to the project to "tell it as it is".

"There is no longer any room at the NBN Co for spin or for telling the minister what people imagine he wants to hear," Mr Turnbull said.

"In short, I expect the team, management, the board at the NBN Co to regard every forecast and every decision as something they would be prepared to defend in the prospectus for a public listed company."

By ordering the elimination of "spin" in NBN communications, Mr Turnbull is raising the bar for all government projects.

Follow Peter Ryan on Twitter @peter_f_ryan and on his blog.

Topics: business-economics-and-finance, telecommunications, internet-technology, australia

First posted