More time and money !

Events of this week make it inevitable that the NBN roll out will suffer more time delays - and the final cost will again increase.   A ham fisted sub-contractor restoring old Telstra " Junction Pits " managed to turn the media spotlight on their asbestos content, and now this work will receive micro attention across the entire continent.

Many of the original underground ducting and junction pits go back to the days when the Australian phone system was owned by the Postmaster General's Department, and that was a time when new homes were usually constructed with a high asbestos content.   The telephone system has undergone several name changes since then, and now Telstra is the owner responsible for bringing the system up to standard and ready to receive the NBN connection.

Any remedial work involving asbestos requires the workers to wear protective gear and the surrounding area must be free of asbestos fibre contamination.  It will probably need a tent like cover to prevent wind gusts scattering fibres - and now the genie is out of the bottle - how this is being done will be under intense scrutiny by not only the media but also the trade union movement.

The unions are already demanding that Telstra set up a James Hardie style compensation fund with a hundred million dollar bankroll to compensate any worker or householder who contracts an asbestos related disease from exposure to the work being done.

The frightening aspect is the huge number of junction pits scattered across Australia and the time delay that dealing with them safely will involve.  The NBN is already way over budget and far beyond the original time estimates.    This latest crisis is happening just weeks away from a Federal election and will lend credence to the suggestion that simply using " to the node " technology will save time delay by removing the need to do this upgrade work and carry the NBN to homes by using the existing copper wire system.

That would certainly give customers NBN access on a faster time frame, and delivering a direct connection could then progress on a " when required " basis, which is yet to be determined.   Some people believe that only a select business segment needs super fast broadband and something far faster than the present offering would suit the needs of most users.  We will not know until we can get a practical comparison of what the two systems actually deliver.

A large question mark now hangs over the entire future direction the NBN will take !