Update on the National Broadband Network: Update July 2010

In the shadows of the forthcoming election, Maddocks’ telecommunications lawyers Brendan Coady, Sonia Sharma and Fiona Maclachlan provide a status update on the National Broadband Network (NBN). The NBN shapes as an election issue as it is seen as a key reform and major infrastructure project by the Government, while the opposition has pledged to "trash" the Government’s NBN program and come up with a new plan of its own, although details have not been forthcoming as yet.

A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since the Government’s radical announcement in April 2009 that it would build a fibre to the premises broadband network reaching at least 90% of homes in Australia, with satellite and wireless providing broadband services to the remaining 10%. That announcement was short on detail, but in the intervening period much of that detail has been filled in although many questions remain to be answered.

NBN Co, a company created by the Government to bring its vision to life, and headed up by Mike Quigley, has grown rapidly and continues to expand.

To read the full update, please download PDF.