The company building the National Broadband Network says claims by the New South Wales Government that the NBN rollout would lead to a rise in electricity prices are incorrect.

"Putting fibre cables on power poles in NSW brings in more money for the state, not less," said NBN Co CEO Mike Quigley.

"Where we have an issue is that whereas we've negotiated fair and reasonable terms with other utilities in other states, the NSW Government wants to charge us far in excess of anybody else.

"That's unfair to taxpayers.

"Sharing infrastructure is meant to save taxpayers money. It avoids us having to build more of it. It allows us to roll out the NBN more quickly. And it lessens disruption to communities.

"We're delighted that the NSW Finance Minister has said 'the State Government supports the rollout of high speed broadband across NSW'.

"Using the powers in the Telecommunications Act will allow us to get on with the job of doing exactly that.

"And NSW will not be left short-changed. If we cause financial loss or damage to a utility's property then under the Act we're obliged to provide them with a reasonable amount of compensation."

MEDIA INQUIRIES:

Rhonda Griffin

Mobile: 0428 134 401
rhondagriffin@nbnco.com.au

Notes to Editors

• NBN Co's financial model assumes that the company will pass 25 per cent of brownfields premises through aerial deployment

• NBN Co has commenced or completed construction passing 569,000 premises around Australia. Over 2600 premises in Long Jetty, Gosford and Lidcombe where construction is already underway are at risk of having their fibre rollout delayed if NBN Co doesn't proceed to access power poles

• Schedule 3 of the Telecommunications Act gives telecommunications carriers the ability to access infrastructure for the purposes of installing low impact facilities

• To date NBN Co has be able to rollout aerial services in NSW using access to power poles under temporary arrangements that are due to expire early next year

• NBN Co has sourced new ribbon fibre for both its underground and aerial rollout. The aerial ribbon fibre is considerably thinner than the fibre used in NBN Co's first release sites, and much thinner than HFC (or cable TV) cables when deployed. Ribbon aerial fibre ranges in diameter from 9mm by 5mm to 15.2mm by 8.2mm

• In addition to being less visually intrusive than previous overhead fibre cables, the ribbon fibre is designed to speed up the rollout by making the fibre splicing process more efficient

• For more information visit www.nbnco.com.au

Downloads