Premises in Darwin will be able to sign up for fibre National Broadband Network (NBN) connections for the first time this week.
Around 2600 premises in the city will be switched onto the fibre optic network.
Construction has now commenced for more than 25,000 premises in Darwin, including the suburbs of:
• Bayview
• Casuarina
• Darwin City
• East Point
• Eaton
• Fannie Bay
• The Gardens
• Larrakeyah
• Ludmilla
• The Narrows
• Parap
• Stuart Park
• Alawa
• Anula
• Leanyer
• Lyons, Malak
• Marrara
• Moil
• Tiwi
• Wagaman
• Wanguri
• Woolner
The rollout of the NBN in the Northern Territory has been marred by construction problems.
Construction partner Syntheo, a 50/50 joint venture partner with Lend Lease and Service Stream, handed back work for the NBN in the Northern Territory following delays with rolling out the network.
Syntheo has not explained what went wrong, despite being scheduled to appear at a parliamentary hearing.
In March this year NBN Co downgraded its construction forecasts due to the problems with Syntheo.
Former communications minister Stephen Conroy previously said NBN Co made the decision to revise these targets.
“The construction partners were arguing they still could meet their targets. It’s NBN Co … [that] said, ‘Look, we just don’t believe you can meet these targets’,” Conroy said.
NBN Co CEO Mike Quigley also told a parliamentary hearing in February this year it had not connected any fibre serving area modules (FSAMs) in WA or the NT, despite starting construction on the NBN in some areas 19 months ago.
Service Stream is now in a trading halt amid speculation it is looking to offload the Syntheo joint venture.
NBN Co said all premises in the territory will be connected to the NBN by the end of 2015.
The first fixed wireless customer in the Northern Territory was connected in April this year.
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