We know it's costing an arm & a leg but it seems that NBN is as loose with the truth as its political masters:


Another slip for NBN's fibre rollout

Peter Kerr, The West AustralianMarch 22, 2013, 6:07 am



The company building the National Broadband Network has flagged another delay in the rollout of the troubled $37.4 billion project, which in 20 months has not connected a single WA home on its main planned routes.

NBN Co chief Mike Quigley said yesterday that problems at one of its main contractors, Syntheo, had forced the Federal Government-owned firm to slash by almost half its forecast for the number of homes it would connect around the country by June.
Reflecting a construction delay of about three months, NBN Co now expects to connect as few as 190,000 new and existing homes to fibre by June, down from its original forecast of 341,000 premises.

In WA, NBN Co had expected to connect 6000 homes in areas such as Geraldton and Victoria Park by last December as part of its main so-called "volume rollout". But it has failed to connect any, except 350 in isolated "greenfields" housing developments and via satellite.

As it slashed its forecasts, NBN Co also announced that Siobhan McKenna would replace Harrison Young as its chairman. Ms McKenna is managing partner of Ten chairman Lachlan Murdoch's private investment firm Illyria.

Syntheo, a joint venture between construction giant Lend Lease and Melbourne's Service Stream, has been unable to attract staff in high-cost WA, complicating its task.

So badly has it performed in the Northern Territory that NBN Co was this week forced to step in and remove the contractor from the job.

NBN Co will manage the work in-house to allow Syntheo to concentrate on WA and South Australia.

Mr Quigley said he was "disappointed" and was working closely with contractors to get the venture back on track. "We are just not seeing the ramp up of construction workers on the ground needed to deliver these targets," he said.

A spokesman for Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull said the latest change strained NBN Co's credibility. "In the 20 months of the volume rollout in WA, NBN Co has been unable to pass a single house with its fibre," he said.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said it was a short-term blip for a 10-year project.