According to new peak funding cost estimates, the National Broadband Network (NBN) will need an additional $8 billion in funding over and above the initial projected cost of $41 billion.
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Monday that the Government wouldn’t be directly providing any more money for the NBN, but that it was open to giving the project financial support by sharing its AAA credit rating to the NBN, or by directly raising debt for the project.
The original cost of implementing the Coalition’s NBN plan was projected at $41 billion, with a return on investment (ROI) of 5.3 per cent for the project. However, the new corporate plan estimates a cost of between $46 and $56 billion with a ‘base’ rate of $49 billion. The plan also predicts an ROI of just 3.5 per cent, a drop of 34 per cent on the original forecast.
According to new estimates, the NBN plan originally implemented under Labor would have cost between $74 billion and $84 billion and was to be completed between 2026-2028, six to eight years later than current NBN estimates
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