National broadband users will have to pay for back-up batteries

National broadband users will have to pay for back-up batteries

The government said the battery program and an increase in the number of the National Broadband Network points of interconnect were among the most important decisions recently finalised. CheapTOSHIBA PA3534U-1BAS Battery for toshiba laptop that uses pa3534u-1bas battery.

An increase in the number of premises covered by the NBN could push the cost of supplying back-ups above $163 million, up $13.5m from earlier estimates.

Battery back-ups are crucial. In case of a power outage, they ensure emergency phone calls can still be made over the new fibre network that will replace Telstra's copper lines.

The NBN Co corporate plan, released yesterday, says the company will "install a power supply unit, including a suitableHP Pavilion dv6000 Battery" for free at the time network termination units are fitted at NBN premises.

Once the free back-ups run out of juice, people would have to pay a retail price of about $40 to buy new lead batteries -- expected to last three to five years. "Maintenance of the battery, including replacement, will be the responsibility of the end-user or retail service provider," the plan says.

NBN Co has the buying power to purchase theDell Latitude D820 Battery at wholesale rates -- expected to range from $8.20 to more than $13.50, according to the McKinsey-KPMG implementation study.

The study concludes that supplying 11 million phone subscribers with back-up batteries would cost taxpayers between $90m and $150m annually.

However, the NBN Co plan confirmed 12 million premises would be connected to the fibre network within 10 years.

An NBN Co spokeswoman would not say how much the additional one million premises would cost, but said battery back-ups were included in the $35.9 billion total capital expenditure for the network rollout.

"This information is commercially sensitive, as we have yet to implement a procurement process for battery back-up," she said.

"We cannot signal to prospective vendors what we expect to pay, but the costs were included in the capital expenditure estimate," the spokeswoman said.

NBN Co initially did not plan to subsidise back-up batteries but the government insisted it do so after industry concerns over users' ability to make emergency calls during a power failure.

When a blackout occurs, cordless phones don't work on Telstra's copper line and won't function on the NBN.

"Devices which require local power such as cordless phones or those connected to the NTU data ports will not operate during loss of mains power as they are not protected by the battery back-up solution," NBN Co's business plan says.

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