Remember a few years ago, how Tony the Terrible promised us that reusing old copper wires in the National Broadband Network would make it cheaper?

How Tony made his rival, Malcolm Turnbull, the Communications Minister, and then forced Malcolm to go along with it, even though he almost certainly knew it was BS?

And how the stenographers in the Canberra Press Gallery all went along with it uncritically, and claimed a Fibre-to-the-premises NBN by Julia Gillard was an example of wasteful spending?

Well, the NBN is now ripping up many of those old copper wires and replacing them with fibre.

And the NBN is paying a small fortune to ISPs for service problems on those old copper lines:

"NBN Co’s bill for rebates to its retailers related to fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) service problems jumped sharply in the last quarter of 2025, just as its copper replacement program started to enter high gear.

"Rebates that the national network builder had been paying to its RSP customers related to FTTP services had been steady since the beginning of the year, peaking at about 23,247 by the end of September quarter, according to data it lodges with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

"However, in the final December quarter of the year NBN Co reported paying 32,411 rebates related to FTTP service problems - a jump of nearly 40 percent on the previous quarter.

"An NBN Co spokesperson told iTnews that in the first half of the 2026 financial year it converted 287,000 premises from copper connections to fibre. taking its upgrade total to more than a million.

"However, the company conceded that some connection technology shifts in the field were proving to be less straightforward than others.
...
"NBN Co wants to minimise further investment in copper that would drag investment away from new fibre deployments which, it argues, are inherently more reliable and cheaper to maintain."

https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-pays-up-as-fttp-service-levels-wobble-624801

#auspol #telco #NBN #Telstra #Optus #TPG #Australia #news #broadband
NBN Co pays up as FTTP service levels wobble

Copper replacement program encounters complexity.

iTnews

@aj i have never forgotten, never forgiven 😡

last year, eventually, the #nbn revamp pgm reached my street in my town, & so finally i was able to upgrade to the #FttP i should have had from the start, had not the idiot electorate so credulously swallowed madmonk's & trumble's LIES, & voted them in. grrrrrrr.

@MsDropbear42 @aj

It was always going to come back & bite them on the bum. But not Tony & Malcolm… and we’re left footing the bill. Superior economic managers… 🤯

@Susan60 @MsDropbear42 @aj
Malcolm "use your hands" Turnbull:
"And of course, use your hands. I use my hand to distract from the fact that I've done nothing. Where's that hand been? Places you'll never go."

#MalcolmTurnbull #AusPol

https://youtu.be/Z1vuEMRHeOY?si=PI1rmw_kiSxyBJfO&t=87

Lawrence Mooney - An Evening with Malcolm Turnbull

YouTube

@gusseting @Susan60 @MsDropbear42 @aj

The reasons for the extreme disappointment I felt around Turnbull's Prime Minister-dinghy are now much clearer to me.

This isn't a welcome development.

And Lawrence Mooney looks like my brother-in-law. Hehe. Oh will this be milked.

#AusPol #MalcolmTurnbull #LawrenceMooney

@skua @Susan60 @MsDropbear42 @aj
Please do enjoy the Official Portrait of Malcolm "use your hands" Turnbull.
"And of course, use your hands. I use my hand to distract from the fact that I've done nothing. Where's that hand been? Places you'll never go." - Lawrence Mooney's "Malcolm Turnbull".
@skua @Susan60 @MsDropbear42 @aj
Once you see Malcolm "use your hands" Turnbull, you can't unsee it.

@aj “ How Tony made his rival, Malcolm Turnbull, the Communications Minister, and then forced Malcolm to go along with it”

I pass Malcolm-Trees every day. Y shaped where the “underslung” cable dictates the growth of trees because the upwards growth but can’t interfere with cable 🤪😕

@aj I remember Malcolm’s face at some event or announcement that he and Tones did around that time (I think in relation to the switch) – Mal looked like he’d just stuck a handful of sour lollies in his gob.