The most significant concern I have from the NBN tender is the lack of support for greenfields. Sure, everyone knows deploying FTTH in broadacre housing developments is a "no brainer". Even Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said this at the Buddecom round table in March. The issue is however, once the $4.7b is spent who will pay for deploying FTTH into these new estates?

During the Greenfields workshop conducted by the FTTH SIG in preparation of their paper for governement, the land developers all voiced a common concern: they dont want to continue to pay for FTTH. Typically a broadacre FTTH deployment costs about $2000-$3000 per home and a sustainable funding model was suggested by the SIG to ensure that future housing developments can continue to get FTTH without the developer (or ultimately the purchaser) having to pay 100% of this cost.