MICHELLE ROWLAND MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS
MEMBER FOR GREENWAY
DUD NBN HITS ANOTHER LOW – HFC ACTIVATIONS SUSPENDED DUE TO CHIP SHORTAGE
Paul Fletcher’s dud Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) network is once again in disarray, with reports that NBNCo has advised retail providers it will no longer take orders for activations on its HFC network from 7:00pm tomorrow because the company has run out of modem chips.
According to CommsDay:
“NBN Co first flagged the impending shortage with Retail Service Providers (RSPs) early in December 2020. It told RSPs this morning that its supplier, understood to be Commscope, "has been unable to secure sufficient chipsets supplies to fulfil its commitments, and on Thursday 28 January 2021 issued NBN Co with a Force Majeure Event notification to this effect." CommsDay understands that Broadcom is the chipset supplier for the Network Termination Devices [NTDs].”
This adds another chapter to Coalition incompetence when it comes to their $57 billion technological omelette:
- A dud copper network that still cannot deliver the legally mandated minimum speeds that were promised for 2016.
- The copper lead-in on Fibre to the Curb causing NBN modems to blow up during lightning storms.
- A national HFC rollout that had to be halted because the technology was so unreliable.
No wonder Bill Morrow begged the Liberals and Nationals to dump the expensive dud that is HFC.
Do it once, do it right and do it with fibre – had the Coalition followed this advice, the nation would have a faster and more reliable NBN, at less cost to the Australian taxpayer.
MONDAY, 1 FEBRUARY 2021
