Connecting The NBN In An Apartment Block Should Become Easier Soon


If you’re in an area where the National Broadband Network has already rolled out but you live in a unit block or other strata title building, getting connected can prove tricky since the body corporate has to give approval. NBN Co says it is working to improve that process by contacting building owners earlier, rather than waiting until the rollout is actually happening in a given street.

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We’ve pointed out before that NBN Co has to get permission before connecting individual premises, and that this can be difficult when dealing with apartment blocks or town houses (multiple dewlling units or MDUs in NBN parlance). Senator Stephen Conroy noted the issue when launching the NBN Corporate plan earlier this year:

If the strata says no, we declare it ‘frustrated’ and we move on. We can’t storm the building. We still have property rights in Australia

Even assuming that everyone in the building agrees they want the NBN connected, organising body corporate meetings outside the annual general meeting can be tricky. At a media briefing today, NBN Co head of product development Jim Hassell said that for future rollouts, building owners will be contacted earlier to try and reduce delays:

Our intention is to go ahead of the rollout so we can get agreement from body corporates in advance. In the early stages [of NBN rollout], we didn’t have that.

Sounds good to me.


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