The biggest certainty facing the country's national broadband network is that it will undergo a complete metamorphosis in the next 12 months with a new board, a new management team, a new culture and strategy, new cost structures and a new set of relationships in the telecommunications sector.
Three separate reviews and a forensic audit of NBN Co will be undertaken immediately, which will effectively give the incoming Abbott government a get-out-of-jail-free card to oust the existing board and take the national broadband network in any direction it wants - and it will.
Critics have described the NBN in its current form as ''overstaffed'', a ''bottomless pit of taxpayer funding'' and a ''quagmire wrapped in a minefield''.
Besides providing political fodder to humiliate the Rudd government, the reviews will look at the NBN's ownership structure and its regulatory protections. This could result in the private sector being invited to take equity to help fund the rollout. It could also precipitate a review of the role of the competition watchdog the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in administering the current open access regime.
NBN Co has suffered more than its fair share of scandals in the past few years, including massive cost blowouts, timetable delays, board disharmony, asbestos scares and some unhappy contractors who are losing money and want out.
Critics have described the NBN in its current form as ''overstaffed'', a ''bottomless pit of taxpayer funding'' and a ''quagmire wrapped in a minefield''. But its own figures are the most damning. In 2010 the target was for almost 1 million homes and premises to be hooked up. By June 2013 fewer than 175,000 homes and businesses were connected. In simple terms after almost five years and $5 billion later the NBN is only 2 per cent built.
The first change a Coalition government is likely to do is appoint Ziggy Switkowski to take charge of the audit and reviews and negotiations with key vendors. His appointment will be followed by others with a depth of experience in the telecommunications and/or construction sectors. Kerry Schott is likely to be one of the few board members to keep her job.
But the biggest change will be the relationships with retail service providers, ISPs and others as the new government switches from a fibre-to-the-home national broadband network to a cheaper fibre-to-the-node and fibre-to-the-basement network.
It will make for interesting times for Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, which was blackballed from tendering for the NBN due to ''national security issues''. That was the only explanation given at the time by the then Gillard government. Instead, it appointed Alcatel-Lucent as the main broadband technology provider.
i went to Ballarat (VIC) today and the guys there were laying fibre on the main road (Sturt street)
Something we are yet to read about is exit fees on contracts and whether a change of government clause been included in the fine print.
the project may or may not have been mishandled but i think we are better off with it regardless.
Three separate reviews and a forensic audit of NBN Co will be undertaken immediately,
Wow, 3 days in office and Abbott already knows how to conduct reviews and audits for free. Amazing how much money this new lot will save us by getting people to work for nothing. I guess the reviews and audits could be done as part of a 'work for the dole' program.
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