NBN: will we ever get there?

In the history of our fine country, has there ever been a more maligned infrastructure project than the NBN?

As the pinnacle of Australian engineering, it’s hard to imagine the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric scheme causing much of a commotion back in the day. In fact, the Snowy is so venerated that it is described as “an important symbol of Australia’s identity as an independent, multicultural and resourceful country” on the scheme’s official website.

By contrast it was revealed in March this year that the Hybrid Fibre Co-Axial (HFC) rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN) was referred to internally by nbn staff as “Operation Cluster***”. We’ll let you fill in the blanks but, suffice it to say, it’s not exactly engendering the same level of admiration.

Of course, back in 1949 when construction of the Snowy commenced, the majority of the population probably just went about their business and continued to so for the 25 years it took to reach completion, happy in the knowledge that the end point was a world-class feat of engineering that would deliver a more efficient electricity supply system. Well, we now live in very different times. A ceaseless flow of information means that each and every turn of the torturous path to a national broadband network is reported on a daily basis, often with evident political bias.

We’ve been talking about the NBN in one form or another for around a decade and it’s been in the headlines pretty much every day since inception. These headlines are rarely what could be called complimentary and it appears unlikely that everyone will be happy with the eventual outcome, no matter what form it takes.

Continuity chaos

The lead-up to a federal election made matters even more extreme. The NBN predictably became the political football we all knew it would, with each party blaming the other for design shortcomings, budget blowouts and delays.

During campaigning, both major parties assured the Australian public that they would deliver a better product once elected and would somehow achieve what their opposition could not. With every statement to the media came a slew of analyst reports and opinion pieces that picked apart the content and highlighted the pros and cons, perceived truths and lies. It was a full-time job to keep up to date with every new development.

By the time this issue of ECD goes to print, the Australian public will have decided one way or the other who’ll be running the show. Whether this truly affects a final decision on a fibre-to-the-node or fibre-to-the-home architecture and its subsequent rollout is anybody’s guess.

As befits an infrastructure project of this scale, the NBN has been scrutinised, dissected and probed from every angle. It’s taken up more column inches than anything else in recent memory and has been praised or blamed for any number of effects including: job creation; job losses; being too slow to roll out and being rolled out before its ready; of raising the rate of educational dropout; of putting lives at risk; of not adequately servicing regional areas (or doing so at the expense of metropolitan centres); of being too expensive; of not being fast enough; of being under-designed, over-designed and completely lacking the facility to effectively handle future demand... the list goes on.

Then there’s the company created to oversee the project in the first place. nbn, previously NBN Co, has endured more board shuffling than the Lido Deck on the Pacific Princess. Every change in government or shift in the economic landscape seemingly calls for a reorder, making relative continuity even more difficult to achieve.

Warts on the wall

What seems to have remained consistent, however, is that overall ugliness of an NBN install from the perspective of the occupant. It’s a two-fold problem, being both ugly in terms of unsightly and ugly in terms of a smooth transition.

Don’t take our word for it, peruse the letters section of any local media servicing areas where the rollout has already occurred. There are thousands of tales from disgruntled consumers — the reasons for complaints vary wildly, but a consistent grievance appears to be the installation of multiple hardware devices in seemingly random locations, as chosen by a designated contractor, along with less-than-stellar cabling installs.

There are even Facebook groups devoted to showcasing the worst examples and a multitude of online forums full of questions from confused home owners and tenants seeking to understand what the official requirements are and how much say they have in the final result.

This is where the distinction between the Snowy scheme and the NBN is so pronounced and makes it clear why one project is so revered and the other reviled. Where the hydro-electric scheme was essentially a step removed from the public, the NBN is feeding directly into each and every connected property and that feed is, for better or worse, highly visible to the occupant.

So, things are personal and it isn’t difficult to see the situation from the end-user’s perspective. Of course there’s plenty of information available in the resources section of the nbn website, but much of it is either too technical for the average punter, too hard to find or is relevant only to new-build scenarios, which isn’t much help to a tenant whose landlord has given them the barest of instructions when it comes to the preferred install outcome in an existing property. There are countless stories detailing equipment being positioned in locations against a customer’s expressed wishes and photos that range from vaguely amusing to borderline terrifying.

It’s not a new problem either — back at the end of 2011, NBN Co advised the then government that the single biggest source of complaints from test-site users was the presence of the required large back-up and power unit, many of which were just slapped up on the living room wall. Five years on and things haven’t changed much — there is a complete lack of end-user awareness in terms of what an NBN installation should (or can) encompass and look like. Customers simply don’t have a clear understanding of what equipment will be installed and what, if any, alternatives are available to them.

The nbn website advises that only registered cablers should be engaged and that they must follow the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) rules. It specifically states that these rules “make sure the cabling is done safely and that the cabler has the skills to do the job”, but certainly contains nothing about how elegant the install should be.

Opting out

Many electrical and comms contractors have elected to ignore the entire market and it is little wonder. It’s hard enough to turn a buck in this day and age, without taking into account the extreme customer-led variations that NBN installs often present. Making money means getting on and off a job as quickly as possible and nothing slows that process more than an indecisive client with an emotional attachment to the look of their home.

Of the contractors that have opted to service the market, many will undertake the bare minimum, installing equipment in the location that represents the easiest and fastest turnaround without regard for aesthetics, leaving a posse of angry customers behind who take to the internet to vent their spleens.

As always, where one man sees a problem, another sees opportunity. In this instance, Jared Smith, former electrician and systems integrator with over fifteen years’ experience behind him, saw a hole and decided to fill it. Smith founded Built Boards, which designs and supplies electrical enclosures constructed for specific install requirements and he reckons a lot of the market has got it wrong.

“A great proportion of our business is sales for new builds,” he said.

There’s no surprise here, it makes sense to incorporate the NBN install into the broader electrical package and install it at the frame stage. It almost certainly represents a better potential revenue stream for the installer as part of a bigger picture, but Smith believes there’s an infinite amount of potential in the existing dwelling market, which is currently under-represented because it’s seen as too hard.

“There are more factors influencing the install than the average home owner or tenant often realises,” he said.

“Obviously, there’s the NBN hardware itself, but you’ve got to factor in the router as well, plus data cable, patch leads and any other existing or future network components. There are access considerations — the equipment needs to be easily reached if there’s a problem, but it shouldn’t be so accessible that it dominates the room, or that toddlers can make contact and the dog can chew through cables. These sorts of things might not even be on the radar of the NBN installer,” he said.

Smith sees a basic lack of end-user awareness and the time and revenue pressures of the installer both contributing to delivery of a less-than-satisfactory outcome in many cases.

“NBN publishes installation guidelines — but they’re chiefly along the lines of ‘the simplest and most practical’ method of installation and, to that end, kind of open to interpretation. The end user needs to know that they are equally able to engage their own independent contractor or installer, who can supply any number of additional value-add items, such as extra data points, conduit and NBN-ready enclosures. That’s a win for both sides,” he said.

Opportunity abounds

“There’s opportunity for installers to seek input from the customer and ultimately guide them toward a more agreeable outcome. Using an NBN-compliant enclosure satisfies a number of issues; it houses everything so therefore delivers a much neater install, it’s lockable, which means there’s no danger of unauthorised or accidental access and, best of all for the contractor, it’s all pre-installed, which means less time on-site,” said Smith.

He thinks the pre-existing homes market can provide enough work to last years, which seems highly likely given the current rollout schedule, and should be enough incentive to attract contractors and installers. The exact target for completion of the NBN remains a point of conjecture, but it’s still in the relatively early stages — across metropolitan centres anyway — so it may be worthwhile securing a piece of the pie while it’s on offer.

No matter how the whole thing washes up, it’s unlikely we will ever regard the NBN with the same reverence as the Snowy Mountains scheme. Australia’s largest ever civil engineering project was constructed under seven successive prime ministers, representing both major parties, and required the participation of 100,000 migrant workers from 30 countries to get it across the line. Most significantly, it was delivered on time and on budget — indeed, we live in different times.

Image credit: © stock.adobe.com/au/PETER HABERBERGER