MICHAEL SMYTH: Now, a major announcement today has been made in relation to the National Broadband Network, with plans announced to roll out to 3½ million homes, schools and businesses including about 330,000 here in South Australia. This is over the next three years or so. If you’ve got any questions about what the NBN is, the sort of service it’s going to provide, when your area is likely to come online, now is your chance to ask. 1300 222 891. Joining us today, Trent Williams, the General Manager of External Affairs with NBN Co…
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MICHAEL SMYTH: Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham’s given us a call on this. Hello, Simon.
SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Good afternoon, Michael and listeners. Look, just one quick question for Trent today. My understanding is that today’s announcement are areas where construction will commence within the next three years. I guess the question lots of people living in those areas would like answered is how long until construction is completed in those areas and all of the premises in those areas are actually connected?
MICHAEL SMYTH: Simon, thank you for your call. Trent Williams, do you have an answer for the Senator there?
TRENT WILLIAMS: Yeah, absolutely, Senator, it takes roughly 12 months. Now, it depends on the size of the area that we’re building. Some areas are larger than others, obviously, but typically we say that it’ll take around three months to do the design of the area, then we do remediation of the Telstra infrastructure for about a month and then it takes roughly, you know, five, seven or eight months to do the build, depending on size, so, all up, around 12 months.
MICHAEL SMYTH: Thank you, Trent, for that response and thanks to Simon Birmingham for calling in.
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