Australia’s National Broadband Network delayed: target missed by 31,000

Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has again slammed the Australian government's $36 billion national broadband network (NBN) project as a waste of money after it was revealed only 4,000 households had been connected to the network so far.

Of those 4,000 just 2,315 premises have begun using the NBN's fiber optic cables for communications. The connection figures, released this week by the government-owned company set up to deliver the network, are well down on NBN Co's earlier projection of 35,000 connections in 2011. NBN expects numbers to ramp up in 2012 as more retail service providers begin offering broadband plans and Australians began migrating to the network from existing services. It's also waiting on an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission green light for its deal with the country's biggest telco Telstra, so it can access the company's underground infrastructure to lay more fiber. Under the deal with the government and NBN Co, Telstra will progressively decommission its copper-based network and allow NBN Co to access its pits, manholes and exchanges, and sell some infrastructure. In return, Telstra will receive $11 billion from the government.