A report on the National Broadband Network (NBN) trial in Ipswich’s eastern suburbs (NBN revolution dawns) suggests the rollout of the NBN will be more difficult than expected. And it appears the network demands a lot of electricity, which means it will have a big carbon footprint. The Queensland Times reports on the switch in the site of the pilot from Springfield Lakes, a new suburb developed in the last decade, to Goodna, a well established suburb:

Springfield Lakes was initially earmarked for the first NBN trial in the Ipswich region, but Mr Rudd [from NBN Co] said that had to be changed after they discovered the Telstra infrastructure there could not support it.

He said that region’s fibre area network (FAN) site, which is “essentially a Telstra exchange”, wasn’t large enough with the right equipment and power supply.But to keep the program on track and start building in this area, Mr Rudd said they chose Goodna because of its favourable FAN site.

For the rest of region, the NBN Co expects to table info on when other areas in Ipswich will have their infrastructure installed.

It’s unclear whether this means Springfield Lakes will never get the NBN or whether it’s just unsuitable for the trial. It’s also unclear whether there will need to be unexpected equipment and power supply upgrades of networks across Australia to accommodate the NBN and what this means for the cost of the already $30-40 billion project.