While NBN and Communications Minister Mitch Fifield insist that the problems being experienced by HFC customers are not fatal for the rollout, sources close to the project told the Financial Review that there had been some attempts within NBN ranks to greatly diminish the use of the technology due to complications with the signals for some Foxtel channels interfering with NBN's broadband.

NBN has already dumped the HFC network acquired from Optus after finding it wasn't up to scratch, but Senator Fifield has said he is confident that Telstra's HFC is delivering 100Mbps (megabits per second) broadband speeds today on the NBN and would be delivering up to 1Gbps with planned upgrades.

NBN management rejects the idea that there is a problem with signal clashes over HFC and is understood to be working off the assumption that dropouts and inconsistent performance are caused simply by insufficient sealing on the cables, which it is going back to fix.

'Policy failure'

To switch away from HFC at this stage would be politically unpalatable for the government, and shadow Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the government and NBN management were scrambling to appear to be fixing the problem to appease an increasingly restless population.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is all smiles as NBN chief executive Bill Morrow shakes hands with then Telstra CEO David Thodey to seal the deal that saw HFC included in the NBN mix. Michele Mossop

"NBN Co knew about the HFC problem back in 2015, this didn't just fall from the sky … At every juncture, NBN Co has put consumers last until the media shined the spotlight," Ms Rowland said.

"NBN executives can spin it however they want, or try to blame whoever they want, but this latest HFC debacle falls squarely at their feet. Turnbull owns the policy failure, and NBN have compounded it with implementation failures."


She said previous analysis signed off by the NBN board indicated the HFC delay could cost taxpayers between $420 and $790 million, in lost revenue, but declined to comment directly on whether Labor would scrap HFC entirely if it wins government.

Asked about the impact of the requirement for NBN to pay to maintain HFC for Telstra's Foxtel transmission, Ms Rowland said it was a result of the government's determination to shift policy after it was elected.

Shadow Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the public would be shocked when they learned the true extent of the contracts underpinning the government's multi-technology mix NBN. Sasha Woolley

"One day the public will learn the true extent of the shambles and contracts that underpin Turnbull's multi-technology mix – and they will be shocked," she said.

"The situation is a shambles. It is nearly 2018 and Turnbull still can't make the technology work properly – and taxpayers are expected to wear the consequences."

Long-term HFC advocate

The Prime Minister's strident support for HFC being used ahead of fibre in areas where it was already laid, was a key aspect of his pitch to voters, who had previously been supportive of Labor's plan to deploy fibre to the premise across large parts of Australia.

In May 2012 he railed against the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's decision to allow the NBN under Labor to decommission Optus' HFC network, describing it as "baffling".


Minister for Communications Mitch Fifield has said the current problems with the HFC networks can be fixed without problems. Fairfax Media

He said the Optus network – which has now been scrapped under his government – would have provided strong competition to a fibre to the premise network.

"Given that the HFC can be upgraded now to well over 100 megabits per second, given the utter absence of any applications which would require that speed now … the obvious conclusion is that in the here and now – here in Australia just as in every other comparable market – the HFC network is a powerful competitor with the NBN," Mr Turnbull said.

"We have the potential here at least of the Optus network being available to [provide very high-speed broadband] – not over all of Australia but over a large percentage of Australia."

Among numerous other speeches and media interviews since, Mr Turnbull has consistently suggested that Labor's previous NBN plan was mistakenly ditching HFC, which was already in good shape and ready to use.

Under the plans of former minister for broadband, communications and the digital economy Stephen Conroy, the HFC networks would have been decommissioned in favour of fibre to the premise technology. Stefan Postles

"Those HFC networks are not only able to deliver very high speed broadband today of 100 megabits per second; but, as the NBN Co announced last week, by 2017, using the DOCSIS 3.1 technology, we will be delivering fibre-like speeds of one gigabit per second down and 100 megabits per second up," he told Parliament in March 2015.

"Our approach will enable us to deliver very fast broadband, in this case at extraordinary speeds, fibre equivalent speeds, much sooner, much cheaper and at much lower cost to customers."