The potential cost of Labor's original ambitious all-fibre National Broadband Network model has been revealed with documents which show that it cost up to $91,196 to connect a single premise.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Ravenswood is not the first place that comes to mind when thinking about super-fast broadband.
But it is at the centre of why the Turnbull government scrapped Labor's all fibre National Broadband Network rollout in favour of its multi-technology mix, following a strategic review of the project when it was elected in 2013.
In a remote area, building fibre into one property cost $91,196, while another property, the Invermay Bowls Club, cost $86,533 to activate a fibre-to-the-premise service due to substantial remediation work.
The top 10 most expensive fibre-to-the-premise activations in each state of territory across Australia cost $1.63 million to rollout, which were all designated as FTTP in NBN's original business plan, an average of more than $23,000 per premise.
While built between mid-2014 and 2016, the properties were designed before NBN could use fibre-to-the-node, of which the main build began in 2016.
The least expensive of the 70 properties was a residential property in South Australia, which cost $8916, more than double the average FTTP per premise cost.
The data, released by NBN, only included FTTP build costs.
The bulk of the expense in these properties came from new lead-ins to buildings, some as long as 900 metres, which included the digging up of footpaths, driveways in areas of dense rock and restoring properties after construction.
"This is precisely what was wrong with Labor's theological approach to NBN technology," Communications Minister Mitch Fifield said.
On average, FTTP costs $4400 per premise, with the biggest cost coming from the connection between pit and premise - around $1500.
Fibre-to-the-curb, which takes out the most expensive component of FTTP, costs on average $2900.
"Before I became a CEO, I was an engineer in the telecoms industry so I can absolutely understand the huge attraction of an all-FTTP network," NBN chief executive Bill Morrow said.
"It is just not feasible to do it in a country like Australia.
“No country in the world has rolled out an all-FTTP network, with the exception of the city-state of Singapore."