conroy's thought bubble

"NBN rollout stalled: report

NBN Co statistics show the rollout of the national broadband network has missed key targets and ground almost completely to a halt across the nation, The Australian Financial Review reports.

According to the newspaper, as at October 7, only 227,454 premises existing homes and businesses had been passed with fibre optic cabling, well short of the 318,700 it predicted it would pass by the end of September back in July.

Tasmania is reported to be the worst affected state with the number of properties able to connect to the NBN falling backwards in the last two months.

The AFR reports a Leighton Holdings Ltd's subsidiary Visionstream - which is responsible for the rollout in Tasmania - said the slow progress was due asbestos-related delays.

Meanwhile, in the Northern Territory, where NBN Co has direct control over the rollout, the newspaper reports only five properties are actively using the NBN."

Five users in the NT! Malcolm's sure got his work cut out salvaging something useful from this mess.