Australian's NBN Co "could offer fibre-on-demand"

Australia’s shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has won headlines again for his outspoken views on the country’s National Broadband Network, this time claiming that he believes Australians could be offered on-demand access to fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) connections as part of the nationwide rollout of fibre-to-the-node (FTTN).

Speaking at the Kickstarter conference on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Turnbull pointed out that he was “not making a pledge on it here”, but added that he sees no technical reason why it would not be possible, citing the example of UK telco BT, which is taking a similar approach with its own fibre rollout.

NBN Co, the company mandated by the Australian government to design, build and operate the country’s FTTN network, revealed last month that it had slightly exceeded its target to have construction commenced or completed in areas covering 758,000 premises by the end of 2012.

The NBN Co team is now aiming to achieve its end June 2013 target of 286,000 premises passed, offering wholesale download speeds of up to 100Mbps to 93 per cent of Australian premises by June 2021, at a total cost of A$38bn ($39bn).