Lower Blue Mountains NBN timeline under fire

NBN Co said the connection dates didn’t represent a “pushing back” of the government’s timeline.

But Federal Member for Macquarie, Susan Templeman, said the admission “is a blow for businesses and residents”.

“When it was announced by the Coalition that the NBN would skip the Lower Mountains, leading to a delay of several years, the commitment was that work would commence in 2017, with services expected to be available by 2018,” Ms Templeman said.

“However NBN Co now concedes that some parts of the build won’t commence until 2018, so people in some areas won’t be connected for about a year after that.

“I learnt that the wait will be longer than anyone imagined thanks to a resident who was looking at the NBN website.”

An NBN Co spokeswoman said the rollout for towns from Hazelbrook to Lapstone “remains on track for the second half of 2017, as referred to by the previous Federal MP”.

“The rollout is undertaken in sections and can take up to 12 months to build. With construction starting in the latter half of the year, this mean that as the rollout progresses, some parts of the build will spill over into 2018. Therefore, availability of services can be expected over the first half of 2019.”

But Ms Templeman described the timeline as “yet another deceit by the Turnbull Government and demonstrates what Mountains residents already know – that Malcolm Turnbull cannot be trusted to rollout the NBN and deliver for Blue Mountains residents”.

“The results of the fibre-to-the-node service in the Upper Mountains is disappointing enough.

“But I despair for the home-based businesses, uni students, retirees and seniors, and residents who simply want a government to provide a 21st century technology to allow them to get on with it.

“Not only will Lower Mountains residents get their NBN later than promised but we still don’t know which technology will be used and where.”