Citing performance issues, NBN Co decided to halt the rollout of its Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) broadband connections in December 2017. The rollout, the company said, would be delayed by six to nine months, asking Australians who expected to be connected to the HFC technology to keep an eye out for updates in February 2018.
With February nearly over, the rollout has been delayed further, making millions of Australians wait to find out when they’ll have access to high-speed broadband.
The only information forthcoming on the status of the HFC rollout from the NBN is “new information will be available over the coming weeks”.
April fools
A spokesperson for the NBN, however, told the Sydney Morning Herald that “we are still expecting to start re-selling HFC services in the first half of this year and will inform end users as soon as we have Ready to Connect dates available for them”.
The SMH report also notes that NBN Co is expected to begin the HFC rollout again by the end of April 2018, although no official announcement has been made yet.
While delays plague the HFC cable connection rollout, some premises have been connected to fibre instead (FTTN or FTTC) in a bid to standardise the 50Mbps speed tier.
Wait to connect… or become the PM
And while Australians are left with slow speeds on the NBN network or no connection at all, the country’s leader has secured a 100Mbps connection for his mansion, despite having argued in parliament that Australians only needed the 12Mbps speed limit.
In fact, Malcolm Turnbull has managed to escape the six- to nine-month delay that millions of other Australians will have to suffer if they want high-speed broadband.
It has been revealed that the 100Mbps connection is costing Turnbull $120 a month at his private home and is also on the same speed tier via an HFC connection at Kirribilli House costing $95 per month.
