NBN challenges lay ahead: report

11.05.2009
The federal government is under increasing pressure to control access prices following research claiming the National Broadband Network (NBN) may lose a third of its users to wireless broadband.

The government has come under heated criticism over claims it may charges users up to A$200 (US$154) for NBN access to make the network profitable within its eight-year timeframe.

Phil Harpur, senior research manager at Frost & Sullivan, said the government will struggle to make the NBN profitable without injecting more public funding.

"The whole landscape will change and it's difficult to determine an adequate ROI, but the bottom line is it's going to be very expensive; however, the price will come down," Harpur said.

Frost & Sullivan's latest Asia Pacific market insight predicts that the proposed fibre-to-the-premises (FttP) can deliver significant long term benefits to Australia's economy, but it warns that the NBN will face a number of challenges.

These challenges include the difficulty of achieving a return on investment (ROI), pricing for NBN access, and the growing migration from fixed line to wireless Internet access.